May 27, 2019

NUCC Networking meeting in Oslo: Bilateral cooperation picking up momentum

Last week began with great news for the Norwegian-Ukrainian cooperation. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) announced direct flights between the two countries starting from October 2019, something both Ukrainian and Norwegian businesses were looking forward to for almost five years.

The news was also announced by a good friend and partner of Norwegian-Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce (NUCC) HE Viacheslav Yatsiuk, Ambassador of Ukraine in Norway, who opened the Annual and Networking Meeting organizes by NUCC in partnership with the law company Wikborg Rein. Mr. Ambassador mentioned positive changes taking place in Ukraine that open new possibilities for Norwegian investors and businessmen. Geir Sviggum, Partner and Chairman of the Board at Wikborg Rein, also welcomed the guests of the event and underlined the importance of collaboration with Ukrainian partners.

Daniel Bjarmann-Simonsen, State Secretary from the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Fisheries greeted the participants and wished both countries successful bilateral cooperation. Kjartan Pedersen, Managing Director of NUCC, gave the overview of the current trade of goods and services between Norway and Ukraine, while Mykhailo Bechkalo, Acting Executive Director of UkraineInvest, presented the key statistics that visualize the positive changes in Ukraine.

Bjørn Celius, Chairman of the Board of Kirkenes Fondsforvaltning, provided information about the investment fund for Eastern Europe that is up and running again, as well as Tor Bukkvoll, Senior Research Fellow at Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, gave an interesting analysis of the current political changes in Ukraine.

The event continued with a panel discussion on status, perspectives and conditions of the Ukrainian-Norwegian cooperation led by the moderator Åse Gilje Østensen, Associate Professor at Royal Norwegian Naval Academy. Among the participants of the panel were Thorstein Jenssen, Senior VP Corporate Finance at one of the leading Norwegian investors to Ukraine and energy companies – NBT; Tor Bukkvoll, Senior Research Fellow at Norwegian Defence Research Establishment; Mykhailo Bechkalo, Acting Executive Director of UkraineInvest, and Nataly Veremeeva, CEO, Kyiv IT Cluster.

The event was rounded up with signing Memorandum of Understanding between NUCC and UkraineInvest, that aims at deepening bilateral cooperation between the organizations.

We would like to thank everyone, who participated in the meeting and we hope to see you at our future events!

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