Minister of Finance of Ukraine Meets with Vice President for Policy and Partnership of EBRD

On November 22, the Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko met with Vice President for Policy and Partnerships at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) Mark Bowman.

Deputy Minister of Finance Alexander Kava, EBRD Board Alternate Director from Ukraine Artem Shevalev, Vice President of EBRD Alain Pilloux, and Managing Director of Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus of EBRD Matteo Patrone also took part in the meeting.

The parties discussed cooperation between Ukraine and international financial institutions, including the IMF and the World Bank, the current status of projects supported by the EBRD in Ukraine, and perspectives for future cooperation.

Sergii Marchenko thanked the EBRD representatives for the effective cooperative work and added that the EBRD is one of the key partners of Ukraine.

As of November, we have successfully implemented 8 EBRD projects totaling EUR 1.68 billion. Credit funds of the Bank are the opportunity to implement important projects in Ukraine. We are interested in further strengthening of cooperation in priority directions for the country - infrastructure and power engineering", - Sergii Marchenko said.

Minister of Finance told about cooperation with the International Monetary Fund.

"In October of this year, the IMF and the Ukrainian side decided at the staff-level to complete the first review of the Cooperation Program with the IMF. And we hope to receive the first tranche of about USD 700 million and continue cooperation with the Fund", - said the Minister of Finance.

Also, the parties discussed the importance of passing law 5600, which will create an additional resource for the budget in 2022.

During the meeting, they touched upon the current state of implementation of projects in the fields of infrastructure, energy, banking, industry, and natural resources. The EBRD remains the biggest institutional lender in Ukraine. As of November 2021, the total volume of the financing provided by the Bank to Ukraine in public, private and municipal sectors is EUR 15.3 billion for 505 projects.

In 2021 two agreements on the Project of electrification of the Ukrainian railroad "Electrification of the Dolinskaya-Mykolaiv-Kolosovka railway line" and the Project "Development of Trans-European Transport Network" entered into force.

At the same time, they discussed the Oschadbank's membership in the Deposit Guarantee Fund, which is the first step on the way of the EBRD entry into the bank capital.

Summing up, the parties stressed the progress in the implementation of projects and expressed interest in continuing cooperation.