Ministry for Communities and Territories Development plans to scale up cooperation with GIZ in four areas: Oleksii Riabykin

Oleksii Riabykin, Deputy Minister for Communities and Territories Development of Ukraine, held a coordination meeting with representatives of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Oleksii Riabykin thanked the international partners for their consistent and systematic support to Ukraine and stressed that the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development was a leader in the positive transformation of coal regions and the team had already developed a state programme in this area.

Cooperation with GIZ is an important area of work, especially as a response to the challenges of wartime. At the same time, the Ministry has proposals for further joint work.

“Previously, a project run by GIZ was focused on two coal mining communities – Chervonohrad in Lviv region and Myrnohrad in Donetsk region. As the situation in Donetsk region is unstable, we propose to consider for further cooperation the mines of Volyn region, which require a new approach to changing the priorities of the economic model. The second case concerns coal-fired heat and power generation. It is the case of the state-owned enterprise Centrenergo. These are Trypilska and Slobozhanska thermal power plants, which are city-forming state-owned enterprises, but have been severely hit by russian shelling,” said Oleksii Riabykin.

According to him, the third area of work is further cooperation with GIZ to support mines in Dnipropetrovsk region, which is one of the regions where coal production is concentrated.

The Deputy Minister also stressed that work was underway to support the school meals reform project, patronised by First Lady of Ukraine, namely the creation of a food factory in Chervonohrad.

For her part, Miriam Faulwetter, GIZ Programme Director, Just Transition & Green Energy Sector Recovery Ukraine, said that given the project’s focus on coal communities and regions, GIZ and the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development would like to rethink the activities in these regions in terms of sustainability, resilience, energy security and further development.

“We would like to continue our cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure and are ready to provide further support through working groups and other programmes. In addition to the existing project, we are currently working on a new one with the support of the German Government. It is expected to start in early 2025. This project will include four areas of work, with a focus on infrastructure, including energy. We hope that we will work together fruitfully in the new project as well,” said Miriam Faulwetter.

As a reminder, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has been supporting Ukraine on its path to democratic transformation since 1993 on behalf of the German Federal Government. Since 2009, GIZ has had a representative office in Kyiv.