First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko called on French businesses to start investing in Ukraine. At a meeting with representatives of Movement of the Enterprises of France (Mouvement des entreprises de France, MEDEF), the largest Employer Federation of France, which took place in Paris, she stressed the importance of involving foreign investors in the reconstruction of Ukraine.

The meeting was attended by representatives of different sectors of French business, from aircraft construction and energy to IT developers and agricultural producers.

First of all, Yuliia Svyrydenko thanked the French business for the support of Ukraine and Ukrainians, financial assistance and for condemning the aggression of the russian federation. She also invited French entrepreneurs to start investing in the Ukrainian economy already today, without waiting for the war to end.

“We see opportunities for French companies to take part in the restoration of Ukraine. To this end, we urge French businesses to engage in a dialogue with your Government in order to provide financial assurances that can be used to attract soft loans guaranteed by the French Export Credit Agency – Bpifrance.

We would like to continue the dialogue with the French side, which we previously had with the United States and the United Kingdom, so that export credit agencies of these countries help insure the war risks of their businesses. This will encourage them to enter the Ukrainian market and develop our economy. We are ready to use and adapt the best practices of French companies and their expertise in various industries. But one of the main requirements set by the Ukrainian government for investment in our economy is to ensure a certain level of localization in Ukraine so that we could create added value in our country,” Yuliia Svyrydenko said.

According to the First Deputy Prime Minister, changes have recently been made to the tax and customs legislation in Ukraine. These changes are aimed at stimulating the implementation of activities in the framework of industrial parks.

Thus, today industrial park participants can import new equipment into the customs territory of Ukraine without import duties and value added tax. Profit from economic activities within the industrial parks is also exempt from taxes for 10 consecutive years.

“The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine with the help of the technical assistance project of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and with the participation of central executive authorities concerned is formulating a policy to promote implementation of an eco-industrial park model in Ukraine. I call on French businesses to invest in our country. I am confident that post-war Ukraine will become an integral part of the European economy,” Yuliia Svyrydenko said.

Yuliia Svyrydenko also informed the audience about Advantage Ukraine, a platform for potential foreign investors, which collects investment projects and opportunities in 10 sectors of the economy with a total potential of several hundred billion US dollars.

Representatives of French businesses responded positively to the proposal for localization in Ukraine, and the companies that are only considering the possibility of investing in Ukraine expressed interest in cooperating with Ukrainian enterprises.

Some of them would like to use these enterprises as a potential base for entering the Ukrainian market. Others are ready to consider the possibility of establishing individual enterprises for the assembly of equipment, organizing partial production, using Ukrainian subcontractors and local materials in the manufacture of their own products.

For reference

Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF/ Movement of the Enterprises of France) is the largest employer federation in France. It has more than 750,000 member firms, 90 percent of them being small and medium enterprises with fewer than 50 employees.
MEDEF is engaged in lobbying at local, regional, national and EU-wide levels.