Svyrydenko, Pritzker discuss strengthening of investment cooperation
The relevant statement was made by the Ukrainian Economy Ministry, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.
The meeting was also attended by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Ukraine Bridget Brink, Clayco CEO Robert Clark, Westinghouse CEO Patrick Fragman, Amentum CEO John Heller, as well as advisors to the U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery and the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.
“The agenda includes extremely important issues for our economic self-sufficiency. We started active work in this area together with Penny Pritzker’s office last year. Today we have discussed the progress that has been made recently in terms of the key steps, including investment raising, creating conditions for the return of Ukrainians, and developing the institutional capacity of government agencies,” Svyrydenko noted.
In particular, the meeting participants spoke about improving the work of the government investment promotion office, UkraineInvest; implementing joint projects in the field of nuclear energy, defense sector; and expanding cooperation between American and Ukrainian companies.
The representatives of U.S. companies present at the meeting outlined their current work in Ukraine and future plans. In cooperation with Energoatom, Westinghouse launched a project on the construction of two power units at Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) using the AR1000 technology last spring. Amentum is working on a joint venture with Ukrainian Defense Industry JSC. Meanwhile, the construction company Clayco considers the possibility of joining reconstruction projects in Ukraine.
Among other things, the meeting also focused on the labor market and creating conditions for Ukrainians, who fled abroad with the start of the war, to come back home. This includes the implementation of training and retraining programs, the development of grant assistance programs for individuals to start their own businesses, mortgage programs to acquire housing on affordable terms, etc.
The Ukrainian side expressed interest in expanding the eOselia mortgage program, and mentioned that they were working in this area together with the United States International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
A reminder that, during a briefing in Kyiv, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery Penny Pritzker noted that the United States was encouraging the Ukrainian government to focus on customs reform and countering grey markets as a huge source of revenues.
