The Ukrainian delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko presented to the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) priority projects for financing in 2025.

Yuliia Svyrydenko also thanked JICA for all the support provided since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

“JICA’s contribution to Ukraine’s recovery and economic resilience is hard to overestimate. The agency’s support for Ukraine has already reached USD 1.5 billion. This includes support for Ukraine’s energy capabilities, social sector, economic projects, and humanitarian demining. In particular, Japan has already allocated more than 70 million through JICA for demining, which was used to purchase demining machines and equipment,” said the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy.

During the meeting, the Ukrainian delegation presented projects in the areas of finance, infrastructure, energy, agriculture, humanitarian demining, environmental protection, healthcare, education, social sphere, digitalisation and industrial development.

“One of the key topics of discussion is industrial development. We called on the Japan International Cooperation Agency to support projects to strengthen industrial cooperation, create joint ventures, supply equipment and spare parts, and restore destroyed industrial facilities,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

Energy was another priority area. The Ukrainian delegation called for the supply of energy equipment for distributed generation, solar power plants for critical infrastructure, and requested assistance in purchasing specialised machinery and equipment for Ukrhydroenergo and Ukrenergo, as well as equipment for clearing debris and restoring damaged energy infrastructure.

According to Yuliia Svyrydenko, Japan has advanced technologies for energy-efficient equipment with high efficiency, so the country’s experience can help restore energy capacities.

The Minister of Economy also thanked Japan for its budgetary support and expressed hope that Ukraine would remain in Japan’s priorities in 2025. In addition, she called on JICA to join the financing of investment projects consolidated in the Unified Portfolio of Public Investment Projects.

“We called on our Japanese partners to support the financing of public projects in the areas of healthcare, education, and social services. As for private projects, we called on Japan to support the creation of a Project Preparation Facility to help businesses prepare high-quality projects. In addition, we hope for Japan’s support in covering the budget deficit. We welcome the assurances of our partners to support Ukraine through the G7 ERA mechanism. JICA will participate in the implementation of this mechanism,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

As a reminder, JICA is a Japanese international cooperation agency that operates under the government’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) programme. The agency provides technical assistance, allocates concessional loans to support the budget and has a grant (free) assistance tool.

The ERA is a mechanism created by the G7 countries that will allow the use of proceeds from russia’s frozen sovereign assets to cover the principal, interest and other costs associated with loans raised from partners under the initiative. The ERA envisages the allocation of up to USD 50 billion with subsequent repayment from the proceeds of frozen russian assets.