President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a phone conversation with EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti. The parties discussed the situation with the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The President spoke about the measures taken by Ukraine to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In addition to quarantine measures, the President of Ukraine focused on social assistance and business support programs.
"We understand that small and micro businesses suffer the most, and that is our economy. The Office of the President, the Government and the Parliament - we all work together to develop programs to support our entrepreneurs. In this regard, I suggest that the EBRD consider ways to support the government's actions to launch a program of large-scale financing of SMEs, as well as providing guarantees for such loans," Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
The parties also discussed the infrastructure project, which could help create a lot of jobs. The President reminded that last year Ukraine became the second largest country of EBRD operations in terms of funding and was the first in the number of projects - 51. The volume of annual liabilities reached more than 1 billion euros. Also in 2019, Ukraine had a record disbursement of 950 million euros.
Suma Chakrabarti praised the ongoing reform process in Ukraine despite the COVID-19 epidemic, noting in particular the effective concession law and the vote for the land market opening law. Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine will continue reforms.
"Reforms are extremely important for Ukraine. First of all, to save our economy, and secondly, we continue to cooperate with the International Monetary Fund. The Parliament has already voted for a historic land reform, and recently supported an accelerated procedure for considering a bill to improve banking regulation. Its adoption in the second reading paves the way for Ukraine to establish a new, larger program of cooperation with the IMF," the President of Ukraine informed.
The President commended the EBRD's first EUR 1 billion crisis response package approved in March this year – the Solidarity Package, and expressed hope for the approval of the Solidarity Package 2.0 with an increase to EUR 4 billion and the expansion of critical infrastructure through the Program of Support for Infrastructure.
The President of Ukraine also expressed hope that the EBRD would approve a EUR 450 million loan to Ukravtodor in July for a new project that envisages further reconstruction of the M05 Kyiv - Odesa road up to Odesa and construction of the northern Lviv bypass road. Together with an additional EUR 450 million from the European Investment Bank, this will allow these two important logistics projects to be started quickly.
"Despite the crisis, investment in infrastructure, including road construction, remains one of our top priorities. This year, the budget envisages record funds for road construction, as well as additional borrowings under state guarantees," Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed.
He also thanked the Bank for its willingness to support the development of municipal projects in our country and the signing of a Memorandum between the EBRD and the Government of Ukraine at the Mariupol Investment Forum in October 2019.
"I know that pursuant to its implementation, negotiations have already begun to attract funding for pilot projects in the amount of about 160 million euros in the Kherson, Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk regions. We are hopeful that we will be able to successfully finalize them in a few months. I hope that more infrastructure projects will be deployed in different regions of the country shortly," the President said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy also noted that due to the crisis related to COVID-19, our state-owned companies need additional liquidity. He expressed hope that the EBRD will support the Ukrainian state-owned enterprises.