On 8 May, Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister of Economy of Ukraine, met with Natalka Cmoc, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada to Ukraine, to discuss opportunities for new cooperation projects between Ukrainian and Canadian businesses, SME support initiatives and partnerships between the two governments in priority economic sectors. The event was attended by Deputy Ministers of Economy of Ukraine Taras Kachka and Tetiana Berezhna, as well as representatives of the Embassy of Canada in Ukraine.

In particular, Yuliia Svyrydenko stressed the importance of participating in the Ukraine Recovery Conference 2024, dedicated to the rapid recovery and long-term reconstruction of Ukraine, which will take place on 11-12 June in Berlin.

“The Ukrainian side will be happy to see Canadian businesses at URC 2024. We are interested in cooperation in such sectors as energy, green metallurgy, logistics and transport, IT and digitalisation, and agricultural production. Ukrainian companies from these sectors will take part in the conference, so it is a good opportunity to establish new partnerships,” Yuliia Svyrydenko emphasized.

The meeting participants also discussed grant programmes implemented in Ukraine to support entrepreneurship and possible joint initiatives with Canadian partners.

“We are open to cooperation with Canada on any programmes, especially those aimed at stimulating women’s entrepreneurship. For example, one of the projects we have implemented is the recently launched ‘Created’ grant programme for women entrepreneurs, funded by the Western NIS Enterprise Fund. The programme is aimed at supporting small and medium-sized processing businesses, where each winner receives a grant of up to USD 15,000. The Government is also interested in cooperating with international partners to finance grant programmes for veterans to create new opportunities in the labour market and develop veteran businesses,” Tetiana Berezhna said.

First Deputy Prime Minister also spoke about the Government’s priority areas of work, including the development of production, stimulation of non-resource exports and attraction of investments in the real sector.