Government incentives for investors, access to project financing, risk insurance and credit guarantees, priority sectors for investment and joint projects with Ukrainian companies, and Finnish business participation in Ukraine's recovery.

These issues were discussed during the meeting of the First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko with the Minister of Foreign Trade and Development of the Republic of Finland Ville Tavio. The event was also attended by Deputy Ministers Taras Kachka, Volodymyr Kuzio, Oleksiy Sobolev, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Finland to Ukraine Jaakko Lehtovirta, representatives of Finnish business.

"The Government highly appreciates Finland's readiness to assist Ukraine in its recovery, in particular, to invest in the energy sector, assess environmental damage, strengthen border and critical infrastructure protection, and provide medical treatment for Ukrainian soldiers. Finland's assistance has now reached almost €2 billion, and both governments are ready to further strengthen economic ties and promote business partnerships. For its part, Ukraine has a number of investment incentives and initiatives to support private sector development," said Yulia Svyrydenko.

Thus, for 2024, the Government has proposed several investment support programmes. Among other things, there is a package of incentives for residents of Ukrainian Industrial parks and investors with significant investments of EUR 12 million or more, including preferential taxation, compensation for infrastructure costs and connection to the power grid, exemption from customs duties on new equipment, etc.. In addition, the introduction of Pillar II under the "Ukraine Facility" will help to access €9 billion in project financing over the next four years through the provision of guarantees by International Financial Institutions (IFIs ).

"Ukraine's investment opportunities for the next 10 years are over $292 billion. So far, we have identified sectors for investment that may be of interest to Finnish companies: energy, transport and logistics, agro-processing, critical materials, green steel, digital transformation, including IT and communications. We are confident that large Finnish companies will be interested in exploring investment opportunities in Ukraine," noted Yulia Svyrydenko..

The First Vice Prime Minister added that Ukraine has opportunities to insure against war risks, including through export credit agencies of other countries. In particular, the Government of Finland is ready to compensate for the credit risk of up to €50 million through the national Export Credit Agency (ECA) Finnvera by providing export credit guarantees to promote exports and investments in Ukraine. The Ukrainian party expressed hope that future joint projects will be implemented in 2025-2026 on the basis of public sector investment.

It was also noted that Finnfund has invested in Ukraine through Horizon Capital Growth Fund IV. The Government is interested in further active cooperation within the framework of Finnpartnership – supporting business partnerships and increasing the interest of Finnish companies in cooperation with Ukrainian partners.

In addition, the Finnish Chamber of Commerce EastCham Finland has decided to open an office in Kyiv in cooperation with the Confederation of Finnish Industry to promote reconstruction projects and provide access to the Ukrainian market for Finnish companies.

The Ukrainian party also invited Finnish colleagues to the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2024, which will be held in June in Berlin and will become an effective platform for consolidating support for Ukraine.