The priorities of the Government and the Ministry of Economy, in particular, the restoration of Ukraine, the investment environment, humanitarian demining and other issues were discussed by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Economy of Ukraine, during a meeting with Frederic Kempe, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Atlantic Council, today, on May 31.

The foreign delegation included John Herbst, Director of the Eurasian Center at the Atlantic Council, Graham Brookie, Vice President of the Atlantic Council, and Myroslava Luzina, the Atlantic Council Representative in Ukraine.

“Last year was a year of survival, today, despite the ongoing war, we are on the road to rebuilding Ukraine. Relocation of enterprises, provision of micro-grants for business development, export and support of the international community helped our economy to stand up and preserve the functioning of industries. Currently, we are focused on creating safe conditions for people’s lives and favorable conditions for doing business. We want to bring back people who were forced to go abroad because of the war and provide them with work and housing,” Yuliia Svyrydenko said.

Thus, the delegation of the Atlantic Council was informed about the main priorities of the Government’s work, the current projects of the Ministry of Economy and the reforms being implemented in the country.

In particular, the Government is working on the creation of a war risk insurance mechanism. This is a key issue for expanding trade, attracting investment and implementing recovery projects. This will give Ukrainian and foreign business an opportunity to increase investment activity in Ukraine without waiting for the end of the war. Ukraine cooperates with international organizations and financial institutions, such as USAID, MIGA, DFC and ESA of other partner states.

Another important goal is quick and effective humanitarian demining of land, including agricultural land. In particular, 174,000 hectares are potentially contaminated and require priority examination. First of all, it is about people’s safety, because 6.1 million people are at risk because of territories contaminated with explosives. Yuliia Svyrydenko informed about Ukraine’s needs for demining machines, other special equipment, specialist training and the work the Government is doing with donors and international partners to open the demining services market in Ukraine.

First Deputy Prime Minister also emphasized that the Government is focused on the development of a new economic model of Ukraine, which should be based on such components as energy independence, the development of the military industry, strengthening the army, Ukraine’s status as a guarantor of global food security, humanitarian demining, development of IT industry and human capital. The Government’s achievements will be presented at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in June in London.

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The Atlantic Council is a leading American non-governmental think tank that studies the international relations of the Atlantic community and international security issues.