The attractiveness of Ukraine from a logistic point of view, first of all, lies in the fact that Ukraine is a maritime country. Thus multimodal transportation of various cargoes is provided, which in turn increases the financial part of the budget, – says Andrii Radchenko, general director of the Euro-Asian logistic company in a conversation with the Fashion of Diplomacy.
Mr. Radchenko, when was your company created? And for what purpose?
– Euro-Asian Logistic Company was established for the purpose of realizing many years of experience in logistics, and its implementation in the modern Ukrainian business environment. We can offer domestic business the best conditions for transport and warehouse logistics, retail support, establishment of cross-docking operations, the logistic component of e-commerce for merchandising companies and much more.
What has become the main impetus for its creation?
– Creation of the company was facilitated by preliminary work with the partners from China, studying the market and potential opportunities which appear in the conditions of co-operation and collaborative work. Logistic potential of Ukraine is very attractive for attracting foreign partners, therefore, due to this fact, after our numerous visits and negotiations, our company was created.
What do you consider the main achievement of your company for all the time of its existence?
Now the company acts as a 4PL operator and provides a wide range of logistic services, such as transport logistics and warehouse logistics, customs services, retail operations, etc. Our warehouse is managed by the WMS Logistic Vision Suite system, with the help of which we have reduced operations for collecting orders; we have high KPI indicators, and very low percentage of errors. The system has an integrated transport management system, which allows us to coordinate the work of the warehouse and transport facilities, which adds value by reducing transport downtime and optimizing the routes.
Thanks to WMS Logistic Vision Suite, there is productivity growth, warehouse operations’ optimization; the volume of processed goods is increasing, the opportunity to provide information in real time is realized, leftover stock is reduced, the human factor is leveled out.
Your company is a joint Ukrainian-Chinese project. What are the main advantages and preferences of joint activities with the business and economic structures of this country?
– If we analyze the foreign activity of Chinese companies, their growing expansion in the world and, in particular, in Europe should be noted.
Acquiring technological competitors gives access to new technologies and new markets.
Ukraine is not an exception. Joint activity with Chinese partners has its advantages – access to technology and financial resource, and most importantly – their interest in the Ukrainian market.
Ukraine is joining the international transport and logistics project “Silk Road”. How effective and useful for our country is this project?
– The Silk Road project should change its geography in terms of recent relations with the Russian Federation, which make it impossible to transit goods directly. In view of this, a significant part of the trade turnover can be oriented at the route Ukraine – Georgia – Azerbaijan – Turkmenistan – Kazakhstan (Uzbekistan) – China. The potential of this transport corridor is very attractive, but its implementation requires coordinated actions of the relevant authorities in all the countries involved in the project.
What are the ambitious goals and projects you plan to implement during 2019?
– Among our immediate goals is the expansion of our activities not only in Ukraine but also in neighbouring countries, involvement of new volumes of trade turnover, though not extensive growth is important, but technological innovation that can bring efficiency growth.
For example, the volume of e-commerce is growing rapidly. According to The 2017 UPS Pulse of the Online Shopper, the share of mobile e-commerce in 2020 will reach 250 billion dollars, almost half of the total online business volume.
In view of this, we offer and develop a respective direction of our activity – warehousing services, order batching, servicing of payments, courier delivery, etc.
At the same time, one more prioritized direction of our activity is the development of a network of grocery stores near the “Kolo” house.
Having started the project in Kyiv, we are now distributing it all over Ukraine. The concept of the network includes the possibility of electronic orders, which will combine this direction with the direction of e-commerce. In both cases, you need to have a warehouse processing technology for orders and their subsequent delivery to the consumer at the store or at home.
Can Ukraine be considered investment friendly for China? Why?
– The attractiveness of Ukraine from a logistic point of view lies in, first of all, the fact that Ukraine is a maritime country. Thus multimodal transportation of various cargoes is provided. Unfortunately, the political situation in the country does not contribute to the attraction of foreign partners, and the economic rules of the game are also not the most attractive. But despite this, the Chinese partners see the long term prospect of integration with the Ukrainian business.
