The Ministry of Economy's task is to stimulate the development of the private sector and create the preconditions for greater financial independence of the state. To do this, we need to develop domestic production, attract investment in the real sector and increase non-resource exports. This was stated by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, in an interview with Forbes.

"If we take the standards of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the share of the processing industry in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is 20%. Therefore, we set ourselves the task of increasing the share of processing in Ukrainian GDP to this level. Given favourable external circumstances and a consistent policy of stimulating the development of the processing industry, this can be achieved in 10 years. Reprocessing should become a part of the national economic idea," said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

According to the First vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, the change in the structure of the economy will ensure significant GDP growth and new jobs. It will also become an important component of economic European integration. The same transformation should take place in the export structure. Currently, the share of the processing industry is about 35%. We need to strive for 70-80%.

"The paradox of the current situation is that these changes are accelerated by the war. The blocking of exports of agricultural raw materials led to an increase in agro-processing. According to the Customs Service, in the first nine months of 2023, flour exports increased by 267% and pasta exports by 22%. We are seeing farmers investing in new processing capacities and hearing even more about plans to build new plants in the near future. These include mills, bioethanol, deep agro-processing, and food products," Yuliia Svyrydenko stressed.

According to Yuliia Svyrydenko, the Government's goal is to maintain duty-free trade with the EU. It is one of the largest partners of Ukraine and this gives Ukrainian business more opportunities. It is about access to a large solvent market and potentially to EU structural funds. The challenges are in finding funds for modernisation, including green transition, certification and compliance with European standards.