Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Aivaras Abromavicius announced during a press briefing at the Government House that first Ukrainian-German business forum was due on October 23 in Berlin. The forum of such scale will be held for the first time in the history of Ukrainian-German relations. It is expected that the event will be attended by Prime Minister of Ukraine and Chancellor of Germany.

“Ukraine can become a reliable partner of Germany in industrial cooperation, building on the success in the mutual trade of the two countries. In order to demonstrate the prospects for European business in Ukraine, we in synergy with our German partners have organized the German-Ukrainian business forum”, explained Minister Aivaras Abromavicius.

According to him, Ukrainian companies are eager to partner with German industrial leaders in supply chains all over the globe. In turn, the European and German investors - both industrial and financial - will find in Ukraine interesting projects and assets, including broad transparent privatization opportunities.

The briefing was also attended by the Deputy Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine, Trade Representative of Ukraine Nataliya Mykolska, who told about the details of the preparation of the first Ukrainian-German business forum. “The preliminary plan enumerated 300 participating companies, now we see 600 registered companies and about 60 of them represent Ukraine. We were surprised the forum could have raised such an interest. We were expecting industrial, agro, engineering companies. Now we see huge interest of financial and investment funds, banks and foundations involved in family investments that manage finances of the German entrepreneurs. It proves investment attractiveness of Ukraine, that German companies are interested in cooperation in the context of entering into force of the Association Agreement with the EU in the part of trade related matters,” said Nataliya Mykolska.

From the German side the business forum will be visited by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Secretary of State at the Federal Ministry of Finance, Secretary of State of German Federal Foreign Office, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.