On Monday, March 27, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko took part in an event dedicated to the opening of the German national platform for the reconstruction of Ukraine (die Plattform Wiederaufbau Ukraine), organized by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of the Federal Republic of Germany.

The event was also attended by State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development Jochen Flasbarth, Director General of the Trade Department in the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action Dominik Schnichels, and representatives of municipalities, business, academia and civil society in Germany.

The purpose of this event is to discuss the potential contribution of Germany to the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine, as well as consider options for possible cooperation within the framework of the Multi-Agency Donor Coordination Platform for Ukraine.

“We are determined to create comfortable conditions for attracting private investments and structure them in the best way. It is not about one simple solution, but about creating a ‘healthy’ environment in Ukraine so that international business wants to invest. We have to start rebuilding Ukraine right now. This requires maximum synchronization of assistance from all partners. We count on the active participation of the international community, in particular, Germany, in this process,” said Sergii Marchenko.

Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko thanked the German Government for the significant support provided since the beginning of the full-scale war – almost USD 1.6 billion in financial assistance provided by Germany in 2022 became an important contribution to financing the state budget deficit. He also noted the importance of continuing such support, especially in terms of recovery and reconstruction.

Also, the Minister of Finance announced the scale of losses and damages caused to Ukraine by the war, assessed in a joint report prepared by the Government of Ukraine, the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations “Second Ukraine Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment” (RDNA2).

In the course of his speech, the Minister mentioned 5 key priorities for rapid recovery in 2023, in particular:

• Recovery of energy infrastructure;
• Humanitarian demining (more than 250,000 square kilometers have been mined in Ukraine – this is an area larger than Great Britain. For priority demining in 2023, the needs are USD 0.4 billion);
• Restoration of damaged and destroyed housing;
• Restoration of critical and social infrastructure (hundreds of bridges, thousands of kilometers of roads, hospitals and educational institutions were destroyed or damaged in Ukraine, water, heat and gas supply was damaged in many regions);
• Support for small and medium-sized businesses (efforts will be directed to insurance of war risks for potential investors, public-private partnership, assistance with financing projects to support small and medium-sized businesses, which provide a large number of jobs).

The cost of reconstruction will reach hundreds of billions of dollars, including the priority for 2023 – more than USD 14 billion.

Additional information

The German national platform for the reconstruction of Ukraine aims to strengthen Germany’s contribution to reconstruction by enabling representatives of municipalities, business, academia and civil society in Germany to learn about reconstruction in Ukraine, participate in targeted activities and communicate with each other. It is aimed at increasing the transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of initiatives for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

The Platform is designed to build on already established German-Ukrainian relations and on the reconstruction efforts of the Ukrainian government and the development partner community.