2023 should be the year of Ukraine’s early recovery, which foreign business can join already today. This was the key topic of discussion during a meeting in Kyiv between First Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko and representatives of the largest French employer federation, MEDEF.
Representatives of French companies operating in energy, infrastructure, construction, medical technology, healthcare and other sectors are in Ukraine on an official business mission. Yuliia Svyrydenko already had a substantive discussion with some of them last December during her visit to Paris. So, the parties continued their dialogue on the needs of Ukraine’s reconstruction and the possibilities of attracting French businesses, investments as well as implementing joint projects.
“Early reconstruction will be one of the main challenges for Ukraine this year. Our task is to bring people back home as soon as possible. This can be achieved only by overcoming the consequences of russian aggression and restoring the destroyed social infrastructure, housing and damaged energy system. The Ukrainian Government sees great prospects in involving French companies in the reconstruction. So, to seize these opportunities, we call on French businesses to engage in a dialogue with your Government to provide financial guarantees that can be used to attract soft loans secured by the French Export Credit Agency, Bpifrance,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.
The parties discussed in detail the insurance of war risks, since their coverage would encourage businesses not to wait for the war to end and invest in Ukraine right away. Ukraine is already seeing significant investor attention to projects, including those aggregated on the Advantage Ukraine platform. Thus, the introduction of effective war risk insurance mechanisms can significantly accelerate the process of attracting investments.
Earlier, the French Government allocated EUR 1.2 billion in macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. EUR 1 billion of these funds can be used to guarantee credit risks, and EUR 200 million – to attract direct lending from the French Treasury. Moreover, the condition for lending in the amount of EUR 200 million is the involvement of at least 50% of French manufacturers and contractors in the implementation of relevant projects.
At the same time, the credit risk guarantee requires the involvement of only 20% of French businesses in the projects. Under such conditions, Ukraine will get extremely favourable preferential financing. In addition, all risks will be covered by Bpifrance.
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 companies, 90 percent of which are small and medium-sized enterprises with less than 50 employees.
MEDEF is engaged in lobbying at the local, regional, national and pan-European levels.