Year 2023 is a time of resilience for victory: Prime Minister's summary of the year
Тhe year 2023 is coming to an end, and it was a challenging period of trials in the fight against a cruel enemy. Despite all the hardships, we survived, became stronger, and created tangible prerequisites for future victory, recovery, and post-war development.
Today it is time to draw conclusions.
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At the beginning of 2023, we set clear goals and determined priorities in our work.
Today, we can record the results to understand where we stand in 2024.
The Government's top priority has been, remains and will be to provide for the Ukrainian army.
Over 11 months, the general fund of the state budget expenditures on the security and defense sector amounted to UAH 1.5 trillion. This is 60% of our total expenditures.
Every hryvnia of taxes paid by citizens and businesses that came into the budget was immediately spent on the defense of Ukraine.
UAH 426 billion was earmarked for the purchase of military equipment, weapons, ammunition, defense products and other supplies for our troops.
Over the past year, we have significantly increased the production of our domestic weapons, equipment, ammunition, and drones.
Today, more than 500 industries work for the defense sector, employing 300,000 people.
We now have 200 companies alone producing drones, and new ones appear every month. We make everything from FPV drones to reconnaissance drones. Everyone has also seen maritime drones in action. The Kerch Bridge and the russian Navy are experiencing their operation.
We produced 42 times more mortar shells than last year. We started to produce ammunition for small arms, shells of various calibers, and factory-made ammunition for UAVs.
We continued to develop missile programs. We proceeded to strengthen our air defense.
We have attracted private business to the defense industry. This brings speed, innovation and efficiency. 4 out of 5 defense companies are now non-state enterprises.
One of the world's largest defense concerns, the German Rheinmetall, has entered Ukraine. We are building the Alliance of Defense Industries and new partnerships with the free world.
This year's procurement budget for Ukrainian-made weapons is over UAH 35 billion. Next year, it will be three times larger.
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The second key objective for us this year was to maintain macroeconomic stability and support economic recovery.
Between January and November, GDP grew by 5.5%. Inflation has been steadily declining, from over 26% last year to around 5% in November this year.
Over UAH 1 trillion of taxes have been accumulated to the state budget in 11 months. This is 27% more than in the same period last year.
I am grateful to all taxpayers who work and propel the economy forward.
I am grateful to all those who also contributed to the purchase of military bonds. Ukrainians have purchased 2.3 million of these bonds through Diia. This is an effective resource for financing priority expenditures.
We have also attracted more than USD 42.5 billion in macro-financial assistance from our partners. Almost USD 20 billion from the EU. USD 11 billion from the U.S. USD 3.6 billion from Japan.
We have agreed with the International Monetary Fund on a new four-year Extended Fund Facility program with the amount of USD 15.6 billion. This year, we received USD 4.5 billion. We have fulfilled all the beacons that were set for this period.
We are grateful to all our international partners who continue to support Ukraine. We count on solidarity next year as well.
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We support Ukrainian business to help the economy recover. We are working to return foreign investment. We are expanding logistics capabilities for exports.
We have issued UAH 5.5 billion under the eRobota program of non-refundable grants. More than 10,000 Ukrainians have received funds. These are new businesses. These are tens of thousands of new jobs that are now appearing across the country.
We have been actively developing soft loan programs for our entrepreneurs. Under the Affordable Loans at 5-7-9% program, almost UAH 90 billion in soft loans were issued to 22,000 businesses. Another program, State Guarantees on a Portfolio Basis, has provided over UAH 37 billion in loans.
More than a thousand business permits were reviewed. 61 outdated instruments were completely canceled. More than 500 instruments will be optimized.
We have created 15 new industrial parks. Now there are more than 70 of them in total.
We have supported our farmers, which has allowed us to collect a record harvest. We are talking about almost 80 million tonnes of grains and oilseeds, which is 10% more than in 2022.
We have invited partners from MIGA and DFC to insure war risks for investment projects in Ukraine. We are talking about agreements worth more than USD 500 million.
Established a new ship insurance mechanism with the participation of British reinsurance companies.
We have launched a new Black Sea trade corridor, which enables us to export not only agricultural products but also other goods by sea.
Total investments in the infrastructure of the Danube ports have already amounted to about USD 100 million. In 11 months, transshipment in these ports amounted to 31 million tonnes, which is an absolute record.
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Our third priority for this year was Ukraine's European integration.
We have made historic achievements. First of all, it is the decision of the European Council to start negotiations with Ukraine on our EU membership.
We are changing our legislation in line with the European acquis. We are changing our institutions. We are fulfilling our obligations, and Europeans themselves admit this.
At the same time, we conducted a self-screening of European legislation, analyzing 28,000 acts of EU law. 1,600 of them have already been implemented. 2,700 are subject to full or partial implementation. 23,400 do not require implementation.
We continued sectoral integration. More than 60% of Ukrainian exports are to the EU. A total of 35,000 declarations under the joint transit procedure have been issued. The process of synchronizing the Ukrainian and European energy systems has been completed.
Our goal is to be prepared for EU membership as soon as possible.
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Without waiting for the war to end, we also launched a program of rapid recovery and reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure.
Within a year, we created a legislative framework for effective recovery. It is based on the build back better principle, barrier-free environment, inclusiveness, and security.
The Government has allocated about UAH 55 billion from the Fund for the Elimination of the Consequences of Armed Aggression for various reconstruction projects.
In total, over 37,000 facilities were restored over the year. Almost 700 schools and kindergartens, more than 400 medical facilities.
We have launched the eVidnovlennia program. We pay our people up to UAH 500,000 to help them repair their war-damaged homes.
In total, 28,000 Ukrainian families have already received UAH 2.2 billion to renovate their homes.
The second stage of this program is certificates for completely destroyed housing. So far, 1,600 of them have been generated, and we have recently started paying them out so that our citizens can buy a new home.
Humanitarian demining is one of the priorities of our recovery. We have raised about EUR 500 million in contributions from international partners. We have certified dozens of mine action operators. More than 200,000 hectares of agricultural land have been returned to economic use. We are preparing the market for humanitarian demining services to make the process run as quickly as possible.
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The energy sector has also become one of the main priorities of the reconstruction.
We survived the struggle for heat and light last winter. Although nearly half of the power grid was damaged, we were successful in preparing for the new heating season.
In total, we restored 1,946 MW of generating capacity. Today, there are no scheduled blackouts in any region thanks to this preparation.
We have created an energy coalition to support Ukraine. We have received 825 cargoes of humanitarian aid for the energy sector. These include generators, transformers, circuit breakers and special equipment. We have more than EUR 400 million in contributions to the Ukraine Energy Support Fund, including the announced ones.
In 2023, Naftogaz increased its own gas production by 7-8%. Foreign traders once again appreciated the advantage of Ukrainian gas storage facilities, pumping about 3 billion cubic meters of "blue fuel" there.
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This year, we also did not change tariffs for gas, water and heating. We continued our policy of supporting everyone who really needs it with subsidies.
In March, we carried out the second indexation of pensions during the full-scale war. The average pension increased by 16% this year.
We continued to provide comprehensive support to internally displaced persons, including monthly payments.
We launched a number of experimental social projects based on the "money follows" principle. This is when money is paid for the service provided, not for the existence of an organization or institution.
In the social sphere, we are building capacity instead of people's dependence on the state.
Ukraine should become a country with the best digital social solutions, where all services and payments are digitalized, and therefore fair, transparent and efficient.
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We are developing a new veterans' policy in Ukraine.
We have launched a comprehensive reform of the Military Medical Commission and the Medical and Social Expert Commission. We have introduced an electronic queue for military qualification examination, which has been used by more than 100,000 servicemen.
The number of Military Medical Commissions has almost doubled due to the involvement of civilian medical institutions. We have simplified the process of obtaining certificates for the military, including information about the circumstances of an injury.
Amendments to the legislation on electronic document flow between the MMCs, military units, TCCs and military hospitals were developed.
We established an Institute of Veteran's Assistants to support veterans in their transition from military service to civilian life.
More than 2,000 veterans and their families received housing compensation. Veterans can now also take advantage of preferential mortgages under the eOselia program.
"We want thousands of veteran-owned businesses to operate in Ukraine and will contribute to this in every way possible. Veterans can now receive up to UAH 1 million to start their own business under the eRobota program of non-refundable grants. Payments have already been agreed for more than 200 veteran businesses.
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Despite all the challenges, we continued to develop and invest in education and healthcare.
It is important that we have finally brought children back to school physically. 87% of our schools have shelters. We are upgrading them to make them more modern and comfortable.
We have provided teachers and students with 89,000 units of computer equipment for a continuous and effective educational process.
We created 154 digital educational centers with safe spaces.
Taking into account the realities of wartime, we increased the state order for medical specialists such as rehabilitation therapists and psychologists.
We expanded the list of available medicines under the reimbursement program by 30 new items. We have increased the supply of drugs procured centrally for budgetary funds by more than 5 times.
We are opening new rehabilitation departments at specialized hospitals.
In 2023, all prescription medicines registered in Ukraine will be prescribed via electronic prescription, which saves time and effort for patients.
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We continued to launch new digital services in all areas. This is part of our Effective Digital State program.
39 new electronic public services on the Diia portal and 14 in the mobile application.
The number of unique Diia users increased by more than 2 million.
More than 8,000 new partners joined the Diia portal and mobile application.
In the area of anti-corruption policy, the Government approved the State Anti-Corruption Program for 2023-2025. It includes 1,700 measures in 15 directions.
We continued to strengthen the institutional capacity and independence of the anti-corruption vertical. The heads of the NABU and the SAPO were selected in open competitions.
The fight against corruption in the Government's view is primarily about eliminating the very possibility of committing corruption. That is why we are digitalizing services. We are carrying out deregulation. We continue to privatize and corporatize state-owned enterprises. Transparent auctions for the sale of state property have raised UAH 2.6 billion.
Also this year, we adopted a regulatory framework for the classification of civil service positions, which is a prerequisite for fair and transparent principles of remuneration for civil servants.
All of this is aimed at building an effective European state in Ukraine. To make it resilient to challenges and trials.
Fellow Ukrainians!
We are closing 2023 with the belief that the future will bring us victory and a just peace.
We will continue to move steadfastly toward membership in the European Union. We will rebuild our country. We will strengthen our army, defend our land and help the Security and Defense Forces in every way possible.
We thank our international partners for their support. We thank everyone who is fighting for a better future for our country. We thank doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, taxpayers, critical infrastructure workers, volunteers, and most importantly, we thank the Ukrainian soldiers at the front. Every day we remember how hard they fight for Ukraine's victory!
Eternal memory and honor to our heroes!
Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes!