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KIEV, Oct. 12-- A huge hydraulic excavator is grabbing a coat of grey muck and loading it on barges, which transfer the waste to the dump site -- Ukraine's Black Sea port of Yuzhny is in the midst of the major dredging operation. The Beijing-based China Harbor Engineering Company (CHEC) is carrying out the dredging, helping Ukraine to transform the Soviet-built port into a modern maritime facility and write the new chapter in the history of Yuzhny. Founded in 1978, Yuzhny is one of the three major ports in Ukraine. Last year, it became the busiest seaport of the country, having reloaded 39 million tons of commodities or 30 percent of Ukraine's total maritime cargo turnover. The dredging is a key part of the Ukrainian government strategy to make Yuzhny an important transport hub on the crossroads of global trade and a link in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. The CHEC won the contract worth 38 million U.S. dollars on upgrading the port in mid-April, getting ahead of four leading dredging and marine services companies from Europe. Lin Tao, the head of the representative office of CHEC in Ukraine, said the Chinese company decided to enter the Ukrainian market after the introduction of an innovative tendering system in the Eastern European country. "In 2016 the Ukrainian government presented a platform for electronic procurement ProZorro. It seems to us that it opened the opportunity for fair competition among all contractors, so we decided to participate in the tender for the implementation of this project," Lin told Xinhua. | 
