On November 23, the 21st session of the General Conference of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization — the Global Industrial Summit (UNIDO GC21) — started in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). Ukraine was represented at the event by a delegation from the Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture headed by Deputy Minister Andrii Teliupa. The delegation also included representatives of the State Institution “Ukraine Investment Promotion and Support Office” (UkraineInvest).

During the opening ceremony of the Summit, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, on behalf of the Government of Ukraine and on the instruction of the Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture Oleksii Sobolev, sincerely congratulated UNIDO Director General Gerd Müller on his confirmation for the next four-year term.

In his speech at the plenary session, Andrii Teliupa emphasized that, despite the targeted destruction of industrial and energy infrastructure by enemies, Ukraine is actively working on creating a modern, competitive and sustainable industry, fully integrated into the European Union and global value chains.

The delegation's visit programme included a series of bilateral negotiations and participation in thematic discussions. In particular, on November 24, a meeting was held with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, Nikolai Pavlov. The parties agreed to resume the work of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission and confirmed Bulgaria’s contribution to the entrepreneurship support project in Ukraine.

On the same day, at the Global Best Practice Showcase venue, the Ukrainian delegation presented an initiative to create an Intelligent Manufacturing and Robotics Hub.

Separately, during the high-level event “Industrial recovery for resilience,” the head of the Ukrainian delegation presented the large-scale UNIDO green industrial recovery programme for Ukraine (2024-2028) and the Trilateral Industrial Dialogue model (Ukraine-UNIDO-Japan).

“UNIDO offers unique value by combining political expertise with practical solutions, as we already see in the example of cooperation with Japan. The presented Programme is a structured strategy and a reliable platform that guarantees investment transparency. Therefore, we invite donors and business to join specifically this format to ensure the modernization of our industry, the resilience of communities and a common future,” emphasized Andrii Teliupa.

UNIDO Deputy to the Director General Yuko Yasunaga noted that UNIDO has been closely cooperating with the Government of Ukraine for many years: “Through a number of projects and initiatives, UNIDO contributes to Ukraine's national recovery and the implementation of the reform agenda, supporting the country's long-term aspirations to build a greener, more inclusive and globally competitive economy.”

Within the framework of the delegation’s visit to Riyadh, the first meeting of the renewed Joint Business Council Ukraine–Saudi Arabia took place,  organized with the participation of the UCCI and the Federation of Saudi Chambers. 

The Government of Ukraine was represented at the event by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and UkraineInvest. On the part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Investment Agency and the Export Development Agency were represented.

The Ukrainian business delegation was represented by national leaders of strategic industries: the agricultural sector (MHP, Kernel), energy and extraction (BGV Group, SPP Development Ukraine), IT and industry (SoftServe, Orion Group), pharmaceuticals and medicine (Darnytsia, InterChem, Dobrobut), and retail (Epicentr K). Over 50 leading companies joined from the Saudi side.

Following the meeting, the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (UCCI) and the Federation of Saudi Chambers signed a Memorandum on activating the Council’s work as a permanent platform for strategic partnership. Representatives of Ukrainian business also agreed on developing cooperation with their Saudi colleagues. The companies signed 15 memoranda between them.

Separately, the delegation held negotiations with the management of the company responsible for preparing the World Expo – “EXPO Riyadh Company.” At a meeting with Chief of Shared Services Hisham Al Sheikh, the Ukrainian side officially confirmed its preliminary intentions to participate in EXPO 2030. The key topic was the national pavilion concept, which will be based on ideas of resilience, technological innovation and post-war recovery. The parties also agreed to establish a joint coordination mechanism (“Ukraine – Expo 2030 Coordination Desk”) to align the roadmap for preparation and the criteria for selecting investment projects to be presented in the exposition.

The Ukrainian delegation also held a number of bilateral meetings with representatives of the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

At a meeting with Deputy Minister of Investment Abdullah Al Dubaihi, the parties agreed on the finalization of the Priority Action Plan, the key indicator of which will be the launch of at least two flagship investment projects in 2026. An agreement was reached on the creation of a Joint Investment Committee to coordinate projects and a schedule for exchanging business missions in January-February of next year. Special attention was paid to financial instruments: the creation of a joint fund (Saudi-Ukraine PE Fund) with a volume of 500 million US dollars and the participation of the Saudi side in the Viability Gap Fund to support PPP projects were considered.

Issues of intensifying trade and investment became the subject of negotiations with Deputy Minister for International Economic Affairs Rakan Tarabzoni. The parties identified three priority channels of cooperation: private investments, public-private partnership and privatization. The Ukrainian side proposed holding the next meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission in Riyadh as a key platform for launching new initiatives in the areas of food security, energy and logistics. Cooperation in the energy sector and the project of LPG supply to Ukraine were also discussed during the meeting with Nasser Al-Qahtani, Assistant Minister of Energy

At a meeting with Deputy to the Director General of UNIDO Fatou Haidara, the parties discussed granting the Green industrial recovery programme for Ukraine (2024-2028) the status of a UNIDO global flagship. The Ukrainian side emphasized the need to accelerate the opening of a Programme Office in Ukraine with a clear industrial mandate, a focus on technology transfer and the development of industrial parks. Further steps in implementing the Trilateral Industrial Dialogue jointly with Japan and the preparation of a large-scale project with the Global Environment Facility (GEF) in the field of resource efficiency were also agreed upon.

Reference:

The 21st session of the UNIDO General Conference – Global Industrial Summit (UNIDO GC21) takes place from November 23 to 27, 2025, in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia). The General Conference is UNIDO's supreme governing body, which gathers representatives of 173 member states to determine the organization's strategy and approve industrial development policy. The main goal of the event is to promote sustainable industrial development, poverty reduction, climate action and the creation of fair supply chains.