“We are ready to make a pilot project on coal transformation in the Big Dobropillia. Conduct sociological and demographic studies to determine the region’s potential for creating new enterprises. We are ready to take this initiative and make the project an example for other regions of Ukraine”, said DTEK CEO Maxim Timchenko during the all-Ukrainian meeting of coal workers with the participation of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Today, DTEK is ready to provide specialists to help conduct a joint audit with the Ministry of Energy and Environmental Protection of Ukraine to determine the potential of mines. “We have already gone this way. DTEK has one of the best technical expertise of working in the mining industry”, said DTEK CEO.
He also added that social issues are an important component of coal industry reform. In this context, Maxim Timchenko emphasized the readiness to create, together with foreign partners, the International Center for Social Transformation for coal regions. In his opinion, this center is necessary in order to form a group of specialists to develop valuable practices and learn from those who have traveled a similar path in other countries. “Ukraine needs such an institution, because the example of social transformations of the regions will be necessary for the coal regions, especially when we’ll integrate Donbass,” says Maxim Timchenko.
For the successful functioning of the coal industry, the government needs to review and ensure the implementation of the forecasted electricity balance for 2020 in the short term, in terms of heat generation and Ukrainian coal. In addition, to maximize the volume of electricity export from Ukraine, prohibit dumped electricity imports, and also abolish non-market restrictions on the price of electricity in the wholesale market.
“I am convinced that all the problems of the coal industry can be solved if the state, private business and society work closely together,” summed up Maxim Timchenko.
