On air of the "Freedom of Speech" program on ICTV, Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine Ihor Petrashko told about two key things to support the domestic industrial production that the Ministry is working on.

"The current economic crisis caused by the coronavirus is unique because it is, first and foremost, an industrial rather than a financial crisis. We see the supply chain collapse, we see the restriction in traffic of people, the restriction of movement of goods. Now the main objective of the Ministry of Economic Development, Trade and Agriculture of Ukraine and the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine is to promote preserving jobs and preserving the maximum number of businesses," said Ihor Petrashko.

He outlined the Ministry's top priority steps in the industry.

“First of all, we should not invent a bicycle and try to follow an example of what the EU and the US have already embarked on. First and foremost, we are already working on how to mobilize the public resource that now goes through public procurement, which is UAH 640 billion through budget allocation, in order to stimulate production in Ukraine by placing orders at Ukrainian or foreign companies that have production facilities or significant localization of production in Ukraine. It is an international practice and we will control to ensure that all our decisions are strictly in line with the requirements included in our agreements with the European Association and the WTO. This is the first thing we will do.

The second thing, with regard to industrial production, we must be realistic and understand that miracles never happen. There must always be equal competitive conditions, while one of the key conditions is access to credit. The crisis of our industry had started a long time ago, due to the fact that Ukrainian companies were deprived of access to relevant credit conditions, which significantly worsened their competitive conditions with their contractors in the EU or the US. We will also need to work with the National Bank and develop programs based on world experience. We all understand that without a financial resource, industrial development is impossible. Therefore, as a second step, we will try to launch programs of access to credit resources, but not only for small businesses but for everyone who wants to work in Ukraine. Affordable loans are a key challenge for the entire state of Ukraine,” the Minister said.