The Cabinet of Ministers has signed an investment agreement with the Chinese government to build a plant for the production of potassium fertilizers in Ivano-Frankivsk region (western Ukraine).

According to Regional Governor Mykhailo Vyshyvaniuk, the construction work will be financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, and the designer of the plant will be China's Wuhuan Engineering Co.

Vyshyvaniuk said that the issue concerned the development of the Kalush-Holinsky potassium salt deposit. Investment in the project is estimated at USD 1 billion. The Ukrainian side insists that the investors invest not only in the construction of the plant, but also in the stabilization of the ecological situation in the region.

The Embassy of China in Ukraine also confirmed China's interest in the development of the deposit. The talks between the parties should be completed ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Ukraine in June, said Chairman of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Anatoliy Kinakh, who is familiar with the terms of the investment project in Kalush.

UKRINFORM