Ukraine has held a pilot auction for mine clearance, which saved the state UAH 100,000. And next year the state will introduce mechanisms to help farmers buy demining services for their land through auctions. This was announced by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, at a press conference to present Ukrainian developments in surveying and demining in Zhytomyr Oblast.

More than 170,000 square kilometres of land in Ukraine are potentially contaminated. The country is committed to bringing 80% of this land back into economic use within 10 years. One of the strategic directions that will accelerate land clean-up is the creation of a humanitarian demining market. Procurement of services through open auctions will attract mine action operators not only from Ukraine but also from other countries. And competition between them will help to ensure reasonable prices for mine clearance.

According to Yulia Svyrydenko, a pilot tender for demining services has already taken place. A plot of forest in Zhytomyr Oblast was put out to tender. Although only one operator took part in the tender, the state saved UAH 100,000 of budget funds by reducing the price of its services.

Next year, the state plans to develop this area of work more intensively.

“The budget for next year includes UAH 2 billion for mine clearance. We plan to use the funds to support agricultural enterprises that will purchase demining services through an auction. This will stimulate the development of the service market and ultimately speed up demining in the country,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

According to her, the Ministry of Economy is currently working on developing the necessary regulatory framework. The Ministry is also planning to hold an auction for the sale of agricultural land demining services in the near future.