On 10 April, the 9th meeting of the Steering Committee of the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform for Ukraine, established to coordinate international assistance and meet the immediate needs and long-term recovery of Ukraine, took place in Kyiv.

At the meeting, the Committee and partners focused on ensuring macroeconomic stability and budget support in 2024-25, meeting the needs of critical reconstruction, early recovery and investment priorities, implementing reforms on the path to the EU, and supporting and engaging the private sector.

In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal emphasised three strategic objectives: ensuring predictable budget support, laying a solid foundation for economic resilience that will help reduce the budget deficit, and using frozen russian assets for Ukraine’s needs. "Our priority is to win the war. And this is impossible without ensuring macroeconomic stability,” said Denys Shmyhal.

The Prime Minister stressed that even in the face of war, Ukraine remained committed to the implementation of reforms and its European course. “We are changing our country because it gives us the strength to fight, recover and win. We have clearly defined priorities and a reform plan. In particular, it is about the transformations envisaged in the Reform Matrix and the reforms under the Ukraine Facility programme,” he stressed.

The Co-Chair of the Platform from Ukraine, Minister of Finance Sergii Marchenko, spoke about the state and needs of financing for 2024-25 in the context of a full-scale war.

“The Ministry of Finance is actively working to increase State Budget revenues. Measures to support budget liquidity in the first quarter of 2024 allowed us to increase domestic revenues by USD 5.4 billion. At the same time, in the context of a full-scale war, when the aggressor has much more resources and causes million-dollar losses to Ukraine every day, international support is crucial. In 2024, external funding reached USD 10.2 billion. I am grateful to the EU, Japan, Canada, the IMF, the UK, and Norway for their budget support, which is directed to the country's priority social needs,” said Sergii Marchenko.

In his speech, Oleksandr Kubrakov, Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration of Ukraine and Minister for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development, stressed the urgency of restoring the energy sector as the basis for the functioning of the economy as a whole. “After the russian massive air attacks, the energy infrastructure needs to be repaired and rebuilt as a priority. The situation in Kharkiv region is particularly difficult. We are counting on the support of our partners to restore generation capacities and continue the construction of passive protection for substations,” he stressed.

Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, spoke about the support and involvement of the private sector.

“After falling by almost 30% in the first year of the full-scale war, the Ukrainian economy is gradually recovering with a projected growth of 4.6% this year. However, to be resilient on the battlefield, we also need greater economic resilience. Therefore, we are working to attract investment, in particular through the Pillar II investment instrument under the Ukraine Facility. We are also strengthening the capacity of the private sector through the Business Advisory Council and other instruments. We look forward to additional practical initiatives and tools under the platform, with a focus on addressing urgent needs such as political risk insurance and access to finance for the private sector,” she said.

The next meeting of the Platform’s Steering Committee is scheduled to take place on the sidelines of the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin this June.

Background

The Donor Coordination Platform was established to coordinate support for Ukraine’s immediate financial needs, reconstruction and future economic recovery from various sources and identified funding instruments. The Steering Committee of the Platform consists of senior officials from Ukraine, the G7 countries and the European Union. International financial institutions and organisations also participate in the Steering Committee meetings as active participants.

The Steering Committee is co-chaired by senior officials from the United States, the European Commission and Ukraine: Daleep Singh, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics, on behalf of the United States, Gert Jan Koopman, Director-General at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, on behalf of the European Union, and Sergii Marchenko, Minister of Finance of Ukraine, on behalf of Ukraine.