The Ukrainian expert community hopes for the wise decision of President Zelenskyi to support the investment partnership between the Chinese Skyrizon and the Ukrainian DCH Group in the joint development of the ‘Motor Sich’ Zaporizhzhia engine building plant.
Analysts believe that the Head of State should facilitate the satisfaction of Skyrizon and DCH Group’s application submitted to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine for the acquisition of ‘Motor Sich’ assets and take all measures to protect Ukraine’s economic interests. According to Yevhen Magda, Director of the Institute of World Politics, this is not only about the preservation and a new unprecedented round of development of the unique enterprise, but also about the creation of a stable ‘platform of interests’ of Chinese investors in Ukraine.
‘Having the COVID world situation, when the value of the national “anchors” of the high-tech industry is increasing significantly, the fight for “Motor Sich” is gaining significant importance. In a clear perspective, not only the preservation and development of a high-tech enterprise but also cooperation in the production of helicopters with representatives of China. The dramatic fate of “Motor Sich”, which was a divisive issue in relations between the United States and China, is a test for Ukraine to defend its national interests,’ Magda says.
According to the analyst, the world reckons only with those countries that can defend national interests. And in this case, Ukraine should follow the example of Israel.
Kirill Molchanov, Deputy Director of the Ukrainian Institute for Analysis and Policy Management, shares this point of view. In his opinion, Volodymyr Zelenskyi faces an unambiguous choice today – either to give a powerful impetus to the development of the domestic economy or to quarrel with #1 international investor and destroy the strategic industrial facility.
‘President Zelensky got a unique chance, very subtly and diplomatically,“between the drops”, to get out of the confrontation between America and China over the influence on “Motor Sich” and launch the manufacturing of aircraft engines in the interests, first of all, of Ukraine! If Mr Zelenskyi accepts Skyrizon and the DCH Group investment configuration, Ukraine will receive enormous investments, new technologies and multibillion-dollar guaranteed orders for many years in advance. I think, the USA will calm down, at the same time, since in the person of Mr Yaroslavskyi, whose image is quite high in America, they will receive guarantees that motor technology will not be moved to China. Suppose Zelenskiy refuses the chance presented by fate. In that case, China, as our strategic trading partner, will become disillusioned with further cooperation, impose on Ukraine exorbitant financial sanctions to return the multimillion-dollar foreign exchange investments already invested in “Motor Sich”. The fate of “Motor Sich” will be ruined. The loss of high-precision, east technologies demanded all over the world, large investments in Ukrainian industry, and so on will become the prospect of the country’s economy. I think that Zelenskyi understands this and still intends to make a reasonable decision. At least, his urgent order to the Cabinet of Ministers to study and remove all the factors that block the work and development of strategic enterprises inspires optimism,’ Molchanov says.
Analysts state that Ukraine cannot be a sovereign, strong country solely at the expense of the agricultural sector. And the wise decision of the President will be a good help on the eve of the elections, to justify the hopes placed on him by the voters of the southeastern part of the country.
As previously reported, on the night of August 6, 2020, the Chinese Beijing Xinwei Technology Group Co., Ltd on the Shanghai Stock Exchange announced in an official statement that the subsidiary of Beijing Skyrizon and the DCH Group of Ukrainian businessman Aleksandr Yaroslavskyi and its affiliated companies submitted a new joint application to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on the purchase of shares of the Zaporizhzhia engine building plant ‘Motor Sich’.
On the same day, Volodymyr Zelenskyi instructed Denis Shmygal, Prime Minister, to urgently take comprehensive measures to protect the economic interests of the state together with the National Security and Defense Council apparatus and the Security Service of Ukraine. In particular, to identify and eliminate the factors blocking the work of strategic enterprises. In turn, the Prime Minister responded that the court should make the final decision about the fate of ‘Motor Sich’. ‘The state cannot interfere in the sale of blocks of shares to some investors, to others, the purchase of these shares by anyone. And here, in fact, the issue is in the plane of arbitration, litigation. When the decision should be made not by politicians, but by impartial institutions that are intended for this in everything the world,’ the Head of Government said in an interview with Radio Svodova.
