On December 16, the 9th Joint Meeting of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and Keidanren was held in Tokyo, Japan. 

As part of the event, Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine Olga Zykova participated in a session on financial instruments to support Ukraine's recovery. 

Olga Zykova spoke about the cooperation with international partners and financial organizations in order to maintain financial stability and build a solid foundation for further economic recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine: 

"Ukraine is at a critical juncture. We are facing extraordinary challenges, but at the same time we have exceptional prospects for further economic development and building our own capabilities. With this in mind, deepening cooperation with international partners, in particular Japan, is crucial. The unprecedented assistance, together with a large portfolio of projects supported by Japan, is the result of a transparent and effective dialogue. In the future, we intend to deepen our partnership in a number of areas that meet Ukraine's priorities under martial law”.

Thus, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the total amount of direct budgetary support from donor countries and IFIs has reached almost USD 111 billion, of which more than USD 37.7 billion has been attracted this year. 

Despite the considerable geographical distance, Japan is the second largest provider of direct budgetary assistance among all countries in the world - more than USD 8.5 billion. 

"We continue to work on the key requirements for attracting the necessary amount of financing and business for reconstruction. First and foremost, it is to ensure macro-financial stability and implement structural reforms, in particular those defined in the programmes of cooperation with international partners," the Deputy Minister added. 

In addition, Ukrainian-Japanese relations are important for the development of the private sector. 

The Deputy Minister emphasised the importance of foreign investment in Ukraine and assured of the Ukrainian Government's readiness to cooperate in this regard: “The Government is actively working on mechanisms to create favourable conditions for foreign investors. We are convinced that massive investments should become one of the main components of the recovery.”

In turn, during the meetings of the Ukrainian delegation with representatives of Japanese companies, it was determined that Japan is interested in increasing investments in recovery and reconstruction, intending to expand the activities of Japanese businesses in Ukraine.