On April 26, 2023, the Conference on the Reconstruction of Ukraine was held in Rome with the participation of the Ukrainian Government delegation headed by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, representatives of the Italian Government and more than 500 Italian companies: Iveco, Enel, Eni, Ferri, Parmalat, Altec, Leonardo SpA, and others. The event was dedicated to strengthening cooperation between Ukraine and Italy, developing business ties and laying a solid foundation for Ukrainian-Italian relations. During the conference, the parties discussed: infrastructure and transport reconstruction; development of cooperation in energy (including renewable energy sources and networks) and environment; joint projects on space and aviation development; healthcare, digitalisation and services; and agriculture.

Denys Bashlyk, Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalisation, took part in the agriculture panel. He presented the current state of the agricultural sector and focused in detail on priority issues: grant support, increased financial liquidity, export expansion, demining and other needs for Ukraine’s recovery.

“For Ukraine, demining is no less important than the restoration of social and critical infrastructure. Today, the priority plan identifies 470,000 hectares of land potentially contaminated with explosive ordnance, so Ukraine needs high-quality surveys using modern technologies: special demining machines, transportation of explosive ordnance, personnel and equipment, etc.,” the Deputy Minister said. He added that Ukraine was interested in attracting foreign investment as soon as possible in order to restore the country and its key economic sectors, including agriculture. Italian experience and technology in the development of deep processing in the agricultural sector is what Ukraine needs.

For their part, Italian companies have expressed their readiness and clear understanding of the need for investment today.