Ukraine‘s Economic Growth Encourages Investment

The World Bank has improved its forecast for the growth of Ukraine‘s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018 to 3.5 percent from 3 percent, the news agency interfax-Ukraine reported in June this year. The forecast for 2019 has been revised upwards to 4 percent from 3 percent.

“In Ukraine, government stabilization efforts, supported by international financial institutions and a bumper agricultural crop, led to a sharp rebound in growth to 2.3 percent, following a cumulative 15.8 percent contraction in 2014-15 in the wake of geopolitical tensions with Russia,“ the World Bank’s report titled “Global Economic Prospects June 2017: A Fragile Recovery“ was quoted. According to the information, the Bank also revised upwards the assessment of Ukrainian economic growth in 2016 to 2.3 percent (from 1 percent), having maintained the forecast for the current year at 2 percent. As the organization had stated in April this year, reforms to boost investor confidence and private sector competitiveness can help raise growth to 4 percent in the medium term.

The World Bank’s current investment project portfolio in Ukraine amounts to about 2.8 billion US-Dollar. As reported, investments support the improvement of basic public services that directly benefit ordinary people in areas such as water supply, sanitation, heating, power, roads, social protection and healthcare as well as private sector development. Since Ukraine joined the World Bank in 1992, the Bank’s commitments to the country have totaled over 10 billion US-Dollar in about 70 projects and programs.

Foreign firms invest in Ukraine

According to the German Association for the External Sector and Location Marketing – Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI), investors finally consider Ukrainian waste management, which has been neglected before, as business area. The British Association Farston Energy plans the construction of a sorting plant for waste and a facility for the production of biogas using organic waste (processing of 200,000 tons waste/year) in Dnipro for 50 Million US-Dollar. The Chinese Investor Grandblue plans the construction of an energetic waste incineration plant (320 tons/day). Moreover, the city administration of Kiev announced plans for several waste processing plants. The Croatian company Tehnix announced the construction of a waste processing plant in Tscherkassy (200 tons/day) as well.

Furthermore, various major water and wastewater projects are planned. Tscherniwzi and Charkiw are being considered for those projects.

Favorable conditions for business

The Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine assures on its homepage (www.me.gov.ua) that its goal is to increase business activities. Further measures are the state-owned enterprise reform, fighting corruption and the reform of state procurement.

Interested parties can take a look at the homepage of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine. On the homepage is a list of websites and agencies, which are coordinated by the ministry. Under the rubric “Investment and innovation policy” interested parties can find authorized contact persons under the heading of “Contact-points in regions for investors”, which support investors. www.me.gov.ua/Documents/Detail?lang=en-GB&id=77b73608-ea42-46ef-aefa-eab8377a7529&title=AuthorizedPersonsInTheRegionsForConnectionAndSupportForInvestors

Furthermore, there is a public e-procurement system: ProZorro (https://prozorro.gov.ua/en). It is a result of collaborations between the Ukrainian government, business sector and civil society.

Photo: pixabay

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