Goals of Ministry of Economy for 2023: increase the volume of business assistance programs, extend duty-free trade regimes, expand exports

Next year, the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine will focus on supporting business and expanding export opportunities. This was stated by Deputy Minister of Economy – Trade Representative of Ukraine Taras Kachka during a discussion titled “How Ukraine’s economy survived through 2022”, organized by the Centre for Economic Strategy.

“Our goal for the next year is to increase the volume of business assistance programs. We are talking about the grant program eRobota and the program of preferential lending ‘5-7-9’. In times of war, these are the most effective mechanisms that allow to support economic activity of the society. Meaning, it is not about reducing the cost of products, not about equalizing competitive advantages, but first of all – about supporting the economic activity of people. Our task is to make sure that during the war people think about business, its development and creation of new jobs. We need such support mechanisms in order not to fall into depression, not to stop,” Taras Kachka said.

According to the Deputy Minister, next year the Government will seek to extend the duty-free trade regimes with the EU, the US and the UK at least for the period when the war is on and Ukrainian business needs support.

Also in 2023, the Ministry of Economy will actively work to expand Ukrainian exports. It concerns unlocking the Black Sea ports, in particular Mykolaiv, and the development of infrastructure in western Ukraine, where international financial organizations (primarily the EBRD) are ready to help businesses by financing projects.

“Freedom of navigation, freedom of transport is what we want. The situation when we have to agree on security guarantees for a particular route is nonsense, an example of how wars interfere with trade,” Taras Kachka concluded.

Minister of Finance of Ukraine Serhii Marchenko and Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Andriy Pyshnyy also took part in the discussion.