Ambassador hopes Ukraine, Israel will sign free trade agreement in coming weeks
He said this in a comment to an Ukrinform correspondent.
"Part of our cooperation with Ukraine is to develop economic ties between Ukraine and Israel. We are very hopeful that the agreement on a free trade area between Ukraine and Israel will be signed in the near future, and our relations will be even closer. I hope this will happen in the coming weeks," Lion said.
The ambassador added that the benefits of this agreement would eventually be felt by consumers of goods and services - due to increased competition on the market.
Lion also recalled that now Ukraine and Israel are developing cooperation in the field of inclusive education - Israeli experts conducted training sessions on inclusive education for Ukrainian teachers, and Ukrainian educators visited Israel to gain experience.
In addition, Ukraine and Israel cooperate in a project of physical rehabilitation, which involves not only the treatment and rehabilitation of Ukrainian military personnel in Israeli clinics, internships of Ukrainian specialists, but also the introduction of clinical and training programs in Ukrainian military and civilian hospitals, etc. In particular, the project is being implemented in the Ukrainian cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv. According to the ambassador, cooperation in the agricultural sector is also developing.
Ukraine and Israel completed negotiations on the conclusion of the free trade agreement in March this year.
According to the Export Strategy of Ukraine, in particular the Roadmap for Strategic Development of Trade for 2017-2021, Israel is among the top 20 promising markets for the export of Ukrainian products and one of the main trading partners of Ukraine in the Middle East region.
The most promising areas for cooperation are agricultural production, tourism, hydrocarbon processing, communications, medicine, energy efficiency, and ecology.
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