On 5 April, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko met with Scott Nathan, Chief Executive Officer of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to sign a cooperation agreement on war risk insurance and investment in the Ukrainian private sector. The event was also attended by Deputy Minister of Economy Oleksandr Hryban.

"Ukrainian business is looking forward to the full launch of such an important financial instrument as war risk insurance. We hope to present the results of cooperation and joint programmes with stakeholders such as MIGA, IFC and EBRD at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London. DFC is already using all available tools to mobilise investment in Ukraine's private sector. We also expect positive decisions on a number of projects that are already under consideration by the Corporation, including war risk insurance projects in Ukraine," said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

She added that DFC's intention to mobilise USD 1 billion of investments in Ukraine ensures the creation of new projects in strategic sectors of the Ukrainian economy, such as energy, food security, reconstruction of social and critical infrastructure, military technologies, IT, etc. In addition, DFC announced a new USD 25 million investment project in Ukraine for Horizon Capital Growth Fund IV as a limited partner.

According to the latest RDNA report from the World Bank of Ukraine, at least USD 0.5 billion in donor support for insurance and war risks needs to be mobilised this year, which can be multiplied by a factor of x2.

"The DFC is focused on mobilising capital in the private sector of Ukraine and war risk insurance is an important part of this process. It is important for DFC to have proposals for reviewing exemplary projects in which we could invest. We recently signed a memorandum with USAID and the Government of Ukraine on the Advantage Ukraine platform, which will help us find new opportunities to support Ukrainian business and the economy," said Scott Nathan.

Thus, Advantage Ukraine will deepen its cooperation with DFC with requests for payments from selected investors, pre-selection of projects, assistance in structuring and capacity building. The positions outlined in the Memoranda should serve as a signal to other lenders and investors around the world that they can get involved in Ukraine's recovery and economic development now.