V. Hroisman: Government is committed to undertake structural reforms in order to improve the lives of people as well as solve long-standing problems

The three new projects of the World Bank signed today with the participation of representatives of the Ukrainian Government and World Bank Country Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova Qimiao Fan are committed to drive forward the essential reforms that Ukraine needs at a crucial time, Vice-Prime Minister-Minister of RegionalDevelopment, Construction, Housing and Utilities Volodymyr Hroisman stated.

“The Government is aimed at the structural reforms, which will help to improve the lives of people and solve problems accumulating over decades”, he underlined at the signing ceremony.

In his turn, Qimiao Fan said that new investments will help improve public services provided to the population of Ukraine: water supply, waste water infrastructure, solid waste services and heating supply, as well as stabilize the economic situation in the country.

On 22 May 2014, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved three new projects for Ukraine amounting to US$1.48 billion. The three projects are part of the World Bank Group’s overall assistance to Ukraine announced in March this year, which aims to provide up to US$3.5 billion by the end of 2014.

The US$750 million First Development Policy Loan will support the budget. Two others-US$382 million and US$350 million respectively-aim to support infrastructure projects in more than a dozen Ukrainian cities.

"New systems of heating supply of cities will be built. Almost a thousand of homes, as provided for today by the project, will be installed individual heating points. This means that the residents of these houses will forget once and for all, what it means, when it's warm, and in their homes it is warm too, and vice versa. We're talking about a modern system of heating regulation. Kilometers of dilapidated pipes will be replaced. We will upgrade water supply. This will lead to a significant improvement in quality of the services, reduction of expenses in the structure of formation of tariffs", V.Hroisman underlined.

According to Volodymyr Hroisman, all work within the framework of infrastructure projects will begin in the second half of this year.

"We need to understand that it is necessary to ensure not only the development of these means, but also to ensure all procedures to be public, open, under the control of the international structures, as each dollar must be invested in business as effectively as possible", V. Hroisman emphasized.

In particular, the US$382 million District Heating Energy Efficiency Project will support 10 municipal heating utility companies across the country by helping them enhance quality of their services and carry out efficiency improvements to cut production costs as well as harmful emissions. The project includes US$50 million from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), which provides middle-income countries with resources to use low carbon technologies. Over 3 million Ukrainians are expected to benefit from the project.

The US$350 million Second Urban Infrastructure Project will provide funding for 10 participating water utilities across the country and a municipal solid waste company. It will assist the participating utilities in achieving a series of improvements in quality and efficiency of the services provided through the rehabilitation and upgrade of dilapidated water supply and wastewater infrastructure and institutional building. This will result in better access to water, wastewater and solid waste services to over 6 million citizens. The project includes US$50 million from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF).