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Agriculture is serious business for Ukraine, even more so since Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion.
农业对乌克兰来说一向重要,自2022年俄罗斯发动全面入侵以来愈发如此。
At that point, it accounted for around 10 per cent of GDP, nearly 15 per cent of its workforce — and two-fifths of exports, according to EU estimates.
据欧盟估算,当时农业占国内生产总值约10%,吸纳近15%的劳动力,并贡献了出口的五分之二。
Since then the war-torn country has become even more reliant on those exports — particularly grains and sunflower oil — as the invasion grinds on.
自那以后,随着入侵战事旷日持久,这个饱受战争摧残的国家对农产品出口依赖愈发严重,尤其是谷物和葵花籽油。
Ensuring they can reach foreign markets, however, has required some rapid and creative thinking, from agrifood businesses and from lawyers. The Black Sea route is all but blocked off, for instance, after Russia pulled out of an agreement that allowed shipments of grain to be exported from Ukrainian ports in July 2023.
但要确保这些产品能够进入海外市场,农业企业和律师们不得不迅速动脑筋、想出办法。自2023年7月俄罗斯退出允许乌克兰港口出口粮食的黑海协议以来,黑海航道几乎完全被封死。
“Ukraine is an agricultural country so it is important for us to sell as [many] agricultural products as possible, because our income as a country depends on [it],” says Anzhelika Livitska, partner at Ukrainian law firm Arzinger.
“乌克兰是一个农业国家,因此尽可能多地销售农产品对我们来说至关重要,因为我国收入依赖于此。”乌克兰律师事务所Arzinger的合伙人安热利卡•利维茨卡(Anzhelika Livitska)表示。
It is important for us to sell as many agricultural products as possible, because our income as a country depends on it
我们必须尽可能多地销售农产品,因为国家收入有赖于此
Livitska led a team of lawyers who worked on construction and environmental law to help deliver one of Ukraine’s first and biggest “dry ports” — inland transport hubs that handle cargo for import and export.
利维茨卡带领一支从事建筑法和环境法的律师团队,协助推动了乌克兰首批、也是规模最大的“干港”之一的落地。所谓“干港”是指处理进出口货物的内陆运输枢纽。
Located near the Polish border, it has storage capacity for up to 6,000 tons of bulk cargo. Agricultural products will make up most of this, but there are facilities for other commodities too. The whole project took around two years and received €10mn financing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. “The project will give capacity . . . for lots of Ukrainian agricultural enterprises to send products to Europe,” Livitska says.
这座“干港”位于靠近波兰的边境地带,可存放多达6000吨散装货物。农产品将是主要货源,但也具备其他大宗商品的处理能力。整个项目耗时约两年,获得了欧洲复兴开发银行1000万欧元融资。利维茨卡说:“该项目将为众多乌克兰农业企业向欧洲输送产品提供运力。”
To develop the dry port, Arzinger worked on aligning cross-border standards on anything from energy supply to environmental rules. One key task was working with Ukrainian Railways to ensure the most efficient physical transfer of freight between Ukraine and the EU.
为推动这个干港的发展,Arzinger处理了跨境标准对接,从能源供应到环境法规皆涵盖在内。一个关键任务是与乌克兰铁路合作,确保货物在乌克兰与欧盟之间实现最高效的实物转运。
Logistics forced innovations because all the usual ways were not available or were very risky
物流迫使我们进行创新,因为所有常规途径都不可用,或者风险太大。
Lawyers have had a natural role in Ukraine’s efforts to attract foreign investment and build major infrastructure since 2022. Much of the work involves tasks such as streamlining byzantine permitting systems.
自2022年以来,律师在乌克兰吸引外国投资、建设重大基础设施的努力中发挥了天然作用。大量工作涉及精简繁复的许可体系等任务。
Galyna Zagorodniuk, partner at law firm Imagine Lawyers, founded in 2024 by former DLA Piper colleagues, led a team that worked on a €35mn, 50 megawatt battery energy storage system, one of a number planned to help to stabilise the country’s grid.
加琳娜•扎戈罗德纽克,Imagine Lawyers的合伙人,该所由前欧华律师事务所(DLA Piper)同事于2024年创立。她带领团队参与了一项3500万欧元、装机容量50兆瓦的电池储能系统项目,这是为稳定该国电网而规划的多个项目之一。
Lawyers generally are tackling projects with little precedent in Ukraine for working within martial laws, she says.
她表示,律师们往往要在乌克兰缺乏先例的环境下、并在战时法令框架中推进这些项目。
On the battery project, she adds: “Logistics forced innovations because all the usual ways were not available or were very risky.”
谈到电池项目时,她补充道:“物流倒逼了创新,因为所有常规做法要么行不通,要么风险极高。”
Currency control, which became stricter with the onset of the full-scale war, is also a challenge, she says, for any projects requiring costly capital imports, because of restrictions on advance payments for equipment that would not be supplied within six months.
她表示,自全面战争爆发以来日益收紧的外汇管制也构成挑战,尤其是对需要高额资本进口的项目,因为规定禁止为六个月内无法交付的设备进行预付款。
The timescale limited the ability to take delivery of complex battery equipment. The answer that Imagine helped devise, she says, was for a US company to buy the equipment and sell that to its Ukrainian subsidiary.
这一时间限制削弱了接收复杂电池设备的能力。她表示,在Imagine Lawyers的协助下拟定的解决方案是:由一家美国公司先行购买该设备,再将其出售给其乌克兰子公司。
The level of understanding . . . with an international angle for them is terra incognita
对于他们而言,涉及国际因素的理解水平……完全是一片未知领域
Separate contracts were made with the manufacturer for warranties and follow-up support.
与制造商另行签订了保修和后续支持的合同。
Another challenge for legal advisers and their clients is that foreign donors need oversight when supporting projects in the country. Maksym Maksymenko, partner at law firm Avellum, led a team that structured a framework for US-based charity Sunflower Network to finance a modular-built hospital in western Ukraine. Scheduled for construction next year, it could prove a blueprint for other healthcare facilities.
对法律顾问及其客户而言,另一项挑战在于:外国捐助者在支持乌克兰项目时需要监督。律师事务所Avellum 的合伙人马克西姆•马克西门科带领团队,为总部位于美国的慈善机构 Sunflower Network设计了融资框架,用于在乌克兰西部建设一座模块化医院。该项目计划于明年开工建设,有望成为其他医疗设施的样板。
Finding the right balance between donor oversight and the input of Ukrainian authorities took many attempts.
在捐助方监督与乌克兰当局参与之间找到平衡,经历了多次尝试。
“We began with three options then another three options — then all of these options were put in a rubbish basket and from scratch we created a new one looking at parties’ needs and the final result,” Maksymenko says. Ten different parties were already involved in the project at this point.
“我们先提出了三个方案,后来又增加了三个——但这些方案最终都被扔进了废纸篓,我们从零开始,依据各方需求和最终结果创造了一个新方案,”马克西门科说。而此时,已有十个不同的参与方加入该项目。
We lose time and resources to fragmentation
碎片化让我们浪费了时间和资源
The work involved improving understanding among local officials of what a big international donor requires. “The level of understanding . . . with [an] international angle for them is terra incognita,” he says.
“这项工作包括提升地方官员对大型国际捐助者要求的理解水平。”他说:“对于他们而言,涉及国际因素的理解水平……完全是一片未知领域。”
Valeriia Ivanova, visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, a US think-tank, says Ukraine needs one single approach to reconstruction so that lawyers spend less time formulating new frameworks in an ad hoc manner. “We lose time and resources to fragmentation,” says Ivanova, a former civil servant.
美国智库德国马歇尔基金会的访问高级研究员瓦莱里娅•伊万诺娃表示,乌克兰需要一种统一的重建方案,以减少律师临时制定新框架所花费的时间。前政府官员伊万诺娃说:“碎片化让我们浪费了时间和资源。”
Everyone is sure that Ukraine will prepare for the next war
所有人都确信乌克兰会为下一场战争做好准备
Whatever happens, the lawyers say it is important that projects are resilient against an uncertain future. That includes adding or strengthening measures relating to questions such as maintaining access to foreign financial support or underwriting of risk, for instance.
无论发生什么,律师们表示,关键在于确保各项目能够抵御不确定的未来。这包括新增或强化与以下问题相关的措施,例如如何维持对外国财政支持的获取,或如何对风险进行承保等。
“Projects of this type are expected to last for years and we have such a strange neighbour as Russia [that] we cannot count on a peace deal even if it is reached,” says Zagorodniuk.
“这类项目预期将持续多年,而我们有俄罗斯这样一个奇怪的邻国,即便达成了和平协议也无法指望其真正落实,”扎戈罗德纽克说。
“Everyone is sure that Ukraine will prepare for the next war.”
“所有人都确信,乌克兰会为下一场战争做好准备。”