Address by the Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal at a Gov't session

On February 24 this year, russia launched a full-scale invasion of our country, but the war began much earlier. And the kremlin is waging this war not only on the military front. russia has attacked and is attacking Ukraine on the energy, economic, information and all other fronts.

The occupiers are shelling industrial enterprises, destroying infrastructure, oil depots, blocking our ports to stop exports. In turn, we are doing everything we can to keep our economy afloat.

According to the operative data of the State Customs Service, the total value of goods exported from Ukraine in April amounted to USD 2.7 billion. In April 2021, we exported USD 5.4 billion, or twice as much. Every day, the government team is working to increase the capacity of our western border. We are building a new logistics system. We are opening new checkpoints, "green corridors". Customs clearance has been simplified as much as possible so that businesses can export products without hindrance and quickly.

Today we will approve the composition of the delegation and start negotiations with the European Union on concluding an agreement on road freight transport between Ukraine and the EU. This will mean the greatest possible liberalization in this matter and in the issue of access to European ports.

In general, the deregulation carried out by the Government affected almost all spheres of the economy.

• The declarative principle of business operation has been introduced.

• The need to obtain the vast majority of permits has been abolished.

• A moratorium has been introduced on virtually all business inspections.

• Radically simplified connection to electrical networks.

Deregulation, tax cuts, 0% loans, and logistics assistance have allowed much of the business to return to work. The number of enterprises that have completely ceased operations has almost halved since the start of hostilities, from 32% to 17%. In recent months, more than 20,000 new sole proprietors have been opened. This is in fact in line with 2021.

More than 215,000 companies have chosen the transition to a new tax system, at which the rate is only 2%. This is more than 44 thousand legal entities and 173 thousand individual entrepreneurs.

Due to the expansion of lending programs below 0%, we are seeing a significant increase in lending, including for investment purposes. Since February 24 this year, almost 6,000 businesses across the country have benefited from this program, and the total amount of loans amounted to UAH 20.5 billion.

As of mid-May, we can also talk about a fairly successful sowing campaign. In March, we outlined  it one of the main challenges. Only within the program of state guarantees on a portfolio basis, our farmers received UAH 15.4 billion. The total amount of funds issued to them under all programs amounted to UAH 27 billion.

These funds were allocated to help more than 10,000 farmers. Due to these and other measures of the state and the heroic and selfless work of our farmers, we have already managed to sow more than 10 million hectares of spring crops.

At the same time, the Government continues to help companies in need of relocation. 517 such enterprises have already been relocated. Most of them are the processing industry. At the locations of the state property fund for these enterprises a symbolic rent is set - UAH 1 per 1 square meter.

Of course, all these tax, credit, deregulation measures of the Government and the Parliament have led to a decrease in budget revenues. Both tax and customs. We understood this, but it was a perfectly conscious step for the economy to begin to recover. We are now mostly closing the budget deficit on our own, but we have also intensified our work with our international partners. We hope to receive EUR 9 billion  from the European Union in the coming months. Almost USD 9 billion should come from the United States as financial aid. These funds will help us survive and recover quickly.

Yesterday we received part of the grant funds from the World Bank's Donor Trust Fund. The amount of such assistance amounted to EUR million. This includes funds from the United States and the United Kingdom. In addition, today the European Commission allocated  the second tranche of macro-financial assistance worth EUR 600 million.

We are grateful to our partners for this help.

 The Government continues negotiations with both the IMF and the World Bank to launch new programs and projects to support Ukraine.

We are doing all this in order to maintain a stable macroeconomic situation in the country, as well as to continue to fully provide the Ukrainian army and support our citizens. This is the overriding  task of the Government.