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Taiwanese firm threatens to sue over Kiev tender

A Taiwanese construction design company is threatening to sue the Ukrainian government for not honoring a tender to renovate a Kiev stadium that will be used in the Euro 2012 soccer championship.

Taipei-based Archasia Design Group Ltd (瀚亞聯合建築師事務所), which won a tender on April 16 to renovate the 84,000-seat stadium, accused the Ukrainian government on Friday of acting “illegally” and “unreasonably” in asking the firm to provide documents by a deadline it contends was impossible to meet or forfeit its rights to the project.

Days after the company failed to comply, Ukrainian Deputy Sports Minister Rostyslav Karandeyev said on Tuesday that negotiations on the stadium deal had ended because of problems with the firm’s legal status in Ukraine, with which Taiwan does not have diplomatic relations.

The company, however, dismissed reports that Ukraine had stopped the negotiations and was looking for a replacement contractor.

Perhaps to avoid diplomatic complications, the company said in a statement on Friday that it was also trying to solve the stadium dispute by having its Shanghai affiliate sign the contract for the stadium renovation with the Ukraine government.

The controversy has been magnified by growing impatience from UEFA with Ukraine’s lackluster preparations for the competition and mounting fears that further delay of the stadium project might cost Ukraine its right to host the event.

UEFA is European soccer’s governing body.

In its statement on Friday, the company said it had faced repeated obstacles in the process of finalizing the contract with Ukrainian authorities, including Kiev’s refusal to provide requested information on the stadium.

The dispute came to a head, the company said, when Ukrainian officials demanded that the company provide documents not related to the contract in a bid to block the signing of the contract.

The officials demanded on June 19 that the documents be authenticated by governments of both countries by June 20, or it would otherwise cancel the contract negotiations, the statement said.

However, because of the absence of diplomatic ties between Taiwan and Ukraine, the authentication process would take weeks because the documents needed to go through Taiwan’s and Ukraine’s overseas offices in Japan to be translated and authenticated, the statement said, calling the action “illegal” and “unreasonable.”

The stadium is scheduled to hold five matches, including the final, in the Euro 2012, which Ukraine will co-host with Poland.

The renovation was expected to cost around US$300 million.
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