Prime Minister outlines key economic tasks for diplomats
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal outlined the main areas of economic diplomacy at a meeting of heads of Ukrainian diplomatic missions abroad entitled “Wartime Diplomacy: Resilience, Weapons, Victory”. The event took place on 19 August with the participation of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba, Head of the Presidential Office Andriy Yermak and First Lady Olena Zelenska.
Denys Shmyhal outlined five main vectors that were relevant today and would remain relevant for a long time to come.
“The first is the accumulation of macro-financial assistance from partners. The second vector is reconstruction assistance. The third is the strengthening of sanctions against the aggressor. The fourth is to encourage foreign investment.
The fifth vector is the promotion of Ukrainian goods on world markets,” the Head of Government said.
According to the Prime Minister, the state is now focusing on the most important tasks, including securing financial resources. Next year’s external financing needs will amount to at least USD 38 billion.
Denys Shmyhal focused on the confiscation of frozen russian assets. He recalled the G7’s decision in principle to use USD 50 billion of russian assets for the benefit of Ukraine. According to him, it is essential that the amount is ready for disbursement by the end of 2024, that no additional political conditions and restrictions are imposed on the use of the funds, that Ukraine is able to finance all critical needs, and that Ukraine’s debt burden does not increase.
“Let’s not forget that our main goal is to confiscate all the frozen assets of the russian federation,” the Prime Minister stressed.
The second task of economic diplomacy, according to the Head of Government, is to attract equipment for various needs to Ukraine. In particular, demining, engineering and medical equipment.
“Mine-clearing vehicles, robots, drones to automate the process as much as possible. We need to be more active in bringing in rescue equipment. More than 1,700 pieces of rescue equipment were damaged or lost during the war. As of now, we need about 1,500. We also need medical vehicles for use in the regions. In particular, medevacs that can evacuate the military from the battlefield,” said Denys Shmyhal.
The third task of economic diplomacy, mentioned by the Prime Minister, is to attract equipment for the energy sector. He recalled that Ukraine had lost 9 GW of generating capacity and that the state was currently working to restore some of the capacity destroyed by the russians.
“We are building a new system of distributed generation: instead of large power plants, we will have hundreds of small electricity and heat generation facilities. A package of government programmes for businesses and citizens is already in place. We have exempted imports of energy equipment from customs duties and VAT. We have removed bureaucratic barriers to the creation and commissioning of power generation facilities,” the Prime Minister said.
In addition, Ukraine is working with ENTSO-E and the European Commission to increase electricity imports from the EU to 2.2 GW.
The Prime Minister called on the representatives of the diplomatic corps to focus on the tasks outlined. He thanked every Ukrainian diplomat for all their efforts for Ukraine’s victory.