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Weekly Lists
April 28, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
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Infrastructure
Ukrainian Railways to ramp up investment
Turkey to pump capital into mega infrastructure
to boost growth
The management of Ukrainian Railway approved a modernisa- tion strategy through 2021 with a total investment plan of between UAH130bn (€4.5bn) and UAH150bn (€5.2bn), the company said in a press release on April 26.
The plan, which aims at making Ukrainian Railway "a leader in the transportation and logistics market not only in Ukraine, but also in Europe", will be presented to the Ukrainian government later this year, the release said.
Proposed changes include creating separate divisions based on business activity, not based on regions as it is now.
Turkey will boost its economic growth by finding creative ways to reduce financing costs and redirect resources to large infrastructure projects, PM Binali Yildirim told Bloomberg in an interview on April 24.
The Ankara government created a sovereign wealth fund last year to finance the country’s mega construction projects including the building of rail links, roads, suspension bridges, tunnels under the Bosphorus, new airports and a shipping canal in Istanbul.
The government also pledged in December to extend up to TRY250bn in credit to private companies under the credit guarantee fund and cut taxes on white goods and furniture.
The measures aimed at stimulating economic activity appeared to pay off. The economy grew by 3.5% y/y in the fourth quarter of 2016 after contracting 1.3% y/y in Q3.
Georgia and Iran are mulling a railway connection, Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced in a joint press conference after meeting in Tehran on April 24.
The connection between the two countries would form part of a larger scheme to unite the Persian Gulf with the Black Sea, which would open new markets for Iranian oil exports. Since the lifting of nuclear-related sanctions in January 2016, Iran has been working closely with the three countries in the South Caucasus to connect its transport infrastructure to them in order to access the Russian and European markets. Tehran has already built a railway connec- tion to Azerbaijan, which was in part financed by Baku.
Georgia, Iran mull building railway link, energy trading