The Ukrainian side presented to the German delegation both the urgent needs of the energy sector that have arisen after the recent rocket attacks by Russia and investment opportunities in key sectors of the national economy - energy, transport and logistics, agro-processing, mining of critical materials and green metallurgy. This was stated by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Economy of Ukraine, during a meeting with Robert Habeck, Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action of Germany.

The meeting was also attended by Rostyslav Shurma, Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Minister of Energy Herman Halushchenko and Minister of Strategic Industries of Ukraine Oleksandr Kamyshin, as well as representatives of major Ukrainian and German companies.

“First of all, I would like to thank Germany, which has been actively supporting our army with military aid, helping our refugees and supporting our economy for two years. I am grateful to the Federal Government for their comprehensive and substantial assistance. Since the beginning of the full-scale aggression, we have received a total of EUR 32.2 billion from you. Germany is also a driver of the defence support for Ukraine. I highly appreciate that this year’s federal budget allocates EUR 7.1 billion for such assistance to our armed forces. As Minister of Economy, I cannot but mention economic support. In particular, from the private sector. Your companies are a real example for other international partners. They not only continue to operate in our market, but also invest in new production facilities,” Yuliia Svyrydenko said.

According to her, the German Government and the insurance company Euler Hermes continued to implement the investment guarantee programme last year. In total, 46 guarantees worth about EUR 340 million are currently in place in Ukraine, and the volume of exports under German guarantees in 2023 was about EUR 170 million.

“To date, we have successful examples of joint ventures and localisation of German production in Ukraine, especially in the defence sector. I am sure that our countries have even greater potential for cooperation in many sectors of the economy. We have identified the most promising sectors for investment that may be of interest to German companies. These are energy, transport and logistics, agro-processing, production of critical materials and green steel,” Yuliia Svyrydenko continued.

Currently, there are more than 200 promising projects in the energy sector totalling USD 60 billion, including wind and solar power plants, decentralised generation, biofuel plants, natural gas and oil production.

The parties paid special attention to the development of distributed generation in Ukraine. After the Russian Federation has destroyed part of the country’s power generation, projects to build new small cogeneration facilities are becoming particularly relevant. During the meeting, the parties discussed the possibility of using German and Ukrainian components to build an extensive generation system.

In the transport and logistics sector, 73 promising projects worth a total of USD 2.7 billion were presented to German businesses, including rail, sea and river transport and export logistics projects. In the field of agro-processing, more than 80 of the most promising projects totalling more than USD 2.9 billion were presented.

The parties also discussed the prospects for German business involvement in the areas of increased production and processing of lithium, graphite, titanium, nickel and other critical materials. Along with green steel production, there are 55 projects in these sectors totalling USD 8.2 billion.

The German side expressed its solidarity with Ukraine in the war against the russian federation and promised to continue to provide both military and economic assistance.