Three years in the making, an agreement signed last week in Beijing for China to finance and build  bridges, highways and railways in Ukraine represents a big step up for China’s commitment to Ukraine, Chinese analysts tell the South China Morning Post. “Ukraine can only embrace China more since both the EU and NATO have not shown much interest in Ukraine joining for now,” said Li Lifan, a senior fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. “China aims to have more high-quality overseas investment projects in this first year of the five-year plan, while Ukraine needs more infrastructure investment to support its economic development as well as the Chinese market to export its food.”

Ukraine’s GDP may grow by 8% in the second quarter, a partial rebound from last year’s disastrous Q2 when the economy contracted by 11%. A Reuters poll of analysts indicated yesterday that the economy will grow by 3.7% this year, largely making up for last year’s contraction of 4%. During the first quarter of this year, Ukraine’s economy contracted by 2.2%, compared to the same period last year, reports the State Statistics Service.