On December 19, 2008, the Minister of Economic Affairs of Ukraine, Bohdan Danylyshyn has held a meeting with the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations system in Ukraine, Mr. Francis M. O’Donnell.

The Minister of Economic Affairs, Bohdan Danylyshyn, had extended his thanks to the Representative Office of UN in Ukraine for its constant and purpose-oriented support and assistance in the dialogue with donor community on coordination of international technical aid in Ukraine, as well as to UN Development Programme and European Commission for their all-round support provided to Ukraine within the framework of the programmes and projects on international technical aid, which are of essential importance for Ukraine, at present, in light of formulation and implementation of policy documents, focused on mitigation of after-effects of international financial turmoil.

According to the Minister, owing to accelerated development of cooperation, more than twenty projects of such aid are implemented in Ukraine, as of today.

Among those projects, there are a number of projects, being of critical importance for Ukraine, at present, such as National Programme “On environmentally compatible production in Ukraine”, which is to promote improvement of national facilities, used in greenfield domain, as well as increase in volume of investments, attracted for the purposes of further development and exchange of environmentally compatible production technologies.

Implementation of the projects “On integrated evaluation of radioactive waste materials safety in Ukraine” and “On introduction of nuclear medicine methods in oncology, i.e., in breast cancer diagnostics” will grant an opportunity to minimize adverse effect of radioactive waste materials on the environment and to enhance the quality of onco-patients.

“Program for the Prevention of Drug Abuse and the Fight Against Drug Trafficking in Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova, 3^rd phase (BUMAD-3)”; “Project of Economic and Social Development/Millennium Development Goals”, “Chornobyl Recovery and Development Program/Phase II” and others are implemented, as well.

“The Government of Ukraine is ready for the expansion of partnership relations with the United Nations Organization and directly with the UN Representative Office, - the head of economic department had stressed. – the Ministry of Economic Affairs works strenuously in order to improve existing procedures of international technical assistance coordination and will welcome active participation of donor community and UN Development Programme in that process”, - B. Danylyshyn has stated and laid stress on further cooperation between the Ministry of Economic Affairs and UNDP.

In the course of negotiations, it had been noted that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and UN Development Programme possess the experience of successful cooperation within the framework of “Millennium Development Goals” project. Such cooperation had enabled Ukraine to take another step towards establishment of public-legal partnership, required for development of key priority milestones of policy and participation of civil society in decision-making process.

The head of economic department had stated, as well, that the Ministry of Economic Affairs, with the participation of other ministries and agencies, presently is engaged in formulation of a number of economic policy documents, focused on both mitigation of crisis after-effects in financial and production domains, and development of strategy of Ukraine’s recovery and its long-term specialization. Those documents are: Draft Programme of Action of the Cabinet of Ukraine during crisis and post-crisis periods; Draft Strategy of Social and Economic Development for 2009 to 2020.

Mr. Francis M. O’Donnell, in his turn, had extended thanks to the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Ukraine for the fruitful cooperation and congratulated all the participants on Christmas and New Year.