Ukraine and Belgium will step up economic cooperation and efforts to use frozen russian assets to help rebuild the country. This was discussed during a meeting between First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko and Minister of Development Cooperation of Belgium Caroline Gennez. The meeting was also attended by Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Belgium to Ukraine Peter Van De Velde, Minister of Justice of Ukraine Denys Maliuska and Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine Oleksii Sobolev.

“Last year, the Ukrainian economy started to recover, but we still have very limited financial resources. Thanks to the taxes collected in Ukraine, we can finance the army that defends the country from the occupiers, and at the expense of foreign aid we can finance the social sector and recovery. To accelerate these processes, we are trying to attract private capital to rebuild the country. Frozen assets of the russian federation should also become an important source of this funding. russia must pay for its crimes, both figuratively and literally. I would like to thank Belgium, which is a key country that is promoting the issue of further use of frozen russian assets for the reconstruction of Ukraine,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko.

The parties discussed further steps to cooperate in this area. Namely, the creation of an effective mechanism for compensation for damage caused by russia’s aggression against Ukraine. It envisages the creation of three key elements – the international register of losses, the compensation commission and the fund that will pay these compensations.

The Belgian side also expressed its interest in participating in the demining and restoration of Chernihiv region, as well as in the implementation of infrastructure projects.

During the meeting, the parties discussed ways to increase Ukraine’s export potential and opportunities to expand war risk insurance programmes, including for small and medium-sized businesses. The parties also discussed the modernisation of the 5-7-9% soft loan programme, as well as the implementation of programmes to integrate Ukrainians returning from abroad into the labour market and entrepreneurship, and the possibility of engaging Belgium to expand such programmes.

“This year Ukraine is launching large-scale reforms. We now have several programmes that need to be coordinated with each other to make them more effective. The Government has developed an action programme for this year, which covers 11 key priority areas of economic development and defines the final terms of the four-year EU Ukraine Facility programme. At the same time, we are synchronising them with the IMF benchmarks and recommendations of the European Commission. At the same time, the Government is working to unite all business support programmes under a single brand, Made In Ukraine, to increase their efficiency. We need to synchronise all areas of reforming the country and stimulating business to ensure the highest possible GDP growth. We will be happy to engage the Belgian experience in rebuilding the Ukrainian economy,” concluded Yuliia Svyrydenko.