As part of a working trip to the Kherson region, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the Kherson Sea Commercial Port state enterprise. The President took part in the ceremony of signing the agreement on the transfer of the Kherson Sea Commercial Port state enterprise to the concession of the Georgian-Swiss consortium company Risoil-Kherson.
"We have a wonderful event for Ukraine today. First of all - for the Kherson region. We have the first marine concession in the history of Ukraine's independence. My congratulations to everyone," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during a conversation with media representatives after the ceremony of signing the document.
The President thanked the Parliament and, in particular, the People's Servant faction, which endorsed the concession law.
"I also want to thank the investors. We talked to them about the most important details - the increase in the number of jobs and the non-reduction of people who work. Wage increase. Normal, legal conditions will be created, there will be no banditry. It seems to me this is logical from the point of view of the country we are building: free, market-based, democratic," the Head of State stressed.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also thanked Minister of Infrastructure Vladyslav Krykliy and Head of the Kherson Regional State Administration Yurii Husiev for a successful preparation of the concession.
"We talked to our investors. They are ready to multiply the indicators set out in the concession agreement and create a hub on the Dnieper, which would ensure the transshipment not only of sea cargo, but also of cargo sent across the Dnieper to those regions that need, for example, our fruits and vegetables," Yurii Husiev emphasized.
The Minister of Infrastructure said that the given public-private partnership project is expected to invest 300 million hryvnias in the development of the port and the infrastructure of the city and the region in the next three years.
"The concessionaire has very ambitious plans - they plan not to stop at this stage and increase the transshipment to 5 million tons over the next few years. We support these ambitious plans and wish them to come true," Vladyslav Krykliy stressed.
According to the Minister, it is planned to sign a concession agreement with a Qatari investor on the specialized port of Olvia.
