Ukraine prolongs a policy of improving business conditions and implementing reforms and invites German businesses to invest in our country. The Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal stressed on March 19 during the opening of the IV Ukrainian-German Business Forum, which is being held in Berlin.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed to the participants of the Forum in a video address and the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany Angela Merkel delivered a welcoming speech online.

As the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized, the business forum provides a unique opportunity to work out promising areas of cooperation between Ukraine and Germany.

"Attracting foreign investment is our priority. In order to create a favorable investment environment in Ukraine, deep structural reforms are being carried out. Last year, we passed a law on state investment support, which provides support for investors who create new jobs and implement investment projects with investments from EUR 20 million," said the President of Ukraine.

For her part, Angela Merkel stressed that Ukraine is an important trade partner of Germany and a place worth investing. The Chancellor of Germany welcomed the laws passed in Ukraine, which give more guarantees to investors and protect their investments. In addition, Angela Merkel noted that Germany supports the reform process in Ukraine and sees progress in their implementation, in particular in the field of tender procurement and digitalization.

The Prime Minister noted that in 2020, Germany ranked first among Ukraine’s trading partners in Europe and was among the five major foreign investors in the Ukrainian economy.

"I see this as a recognition of the sustainable development of the Ukrainian economy, reaffirming of readiness to work in Ukraine and collaborate with its Government. For our part, we stand ready to provide business representatives with comfortable, clear and transparent conditions of activity in Ukraine and fully support their work in the Ukrainian market," emphasized Denys Shmyhal.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine noted that in recent years a number of important bilateral initiatives had been launched with the support of Germany, in particular the Energy Partnership.

"The initiative opens up new opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of energy efficiency, renewable energy, hydrogen production, the gradual transition to a hydrogen economy. Given the significant potential and available infrastructure, Ukraine seeks to become a full partner of the EU in the implementation of the hydrogen strategy, to attract large-scale investments in green economic recovery," said Denys Shmyhal.

According to the Prime Minister, Ukraine has been improving agricultural exports for the third year in a row, and Germany enters TOP 10 countries importing Ukrainian agricultural products on a constant basis.

"Our priority remains the development of the agricultural sector of Ukraine. These include the opening and liberalization of the land market, the improvement of earth stabilization infrastructure, the increase in the production of high-margin crops and processing of products, as well as the improvement of the quality and safety of Ukrainian food products. Ukraine must become one of the centers of food security for the world and we call on businesses to invest in it together," said the Head of the Ukrainian Government.

According to Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine is also establishing a business IT partnership. He expressed hope that the German side would support the idea of formalizing such a partnership at the intergovernmental level.

Apart from that, the Prime Minister accentuated that the Government of Ukraine pays considerable attention to the effective implementation of land reform, decentralization and transformation of coal regions with the help of German partners.

"We are also actively investing in the development of aviation infrastructure and modernizing the railway, making these markets open to private capital and encouraging German business to invest in Ukrainian transit infrastructure," summed up Denys Shmyhal.