On July 4, an international conference for the restoration of Ukraine started in Lugano, Switzerland. Among the main decisions taken on the first day of the conference, one can single out the approval of a plan to provide Ukraine with macro-financial assistance in the amount of $750 billion. Of this total, from 150 to 250 billion is expected to be directed to the restoration of infrastructure and housing damaged as a result of hostilities.
At the same time, the mechanisms for the practical implementation of this project remain unclear in the context of the ongoing war and the need to adapt legislation to it and establish partnerships between the state and private companies. Portal Open4business turned to Igor Stakovychenko, an expert in the field of construction and real estate, for a comment.
In his opinion, the practical implementation of the project should be started now at all levels, since delaying the process can lead to negative consequences in the autumn-winter period.
“Mechanisms for allocating funds from the confiscated assets of the Russian Federation and its large businesses are already being implemented by individual countries. We, in turn, need to implement the conversion of these financial assets into specific infrastructure and construction projects by creating representative offices in donor countries and coordination centers in Ukraine,” said Ihor Stakovychenko.
The expert also stressed that the regional principle of recovery, now promoted by the country’s leadership, when a separate partner state is engaged in projects in a separate Ukrainian region, is the most effective at this stage.
In addition, Igor Stakovychenko suggested creating a system of decentralized funding for the implementation of individual projects at the local level.
“But we must not forget about our responsibility to our partners. It is necessary not only to minimize, but to completely exclude the possibility of misuse of foreign aid by local officials. To do this, it is necessary to create a separate trust fund for each individual restoration project, the activities of which will be as transparent and controlled as possible by both the Ukrainian anti-corruption authorities and the donor country,” Ihor Stakovychenko emphasized.
According to the expert, the basis for the creation of such funds should be existing budget programs, as well as amendments to the main financial document.
“In fact, now we can receive funds both in the form of direct assistance and in the form of investments from partners. Here it is important to successfully implement and present the first major restoration projects, which will help increase investment attractiveness even in the current conditions,” added Igor Stakovychenko.
CONSTRUCTION, EXPERT, FINANCE, MARKETS, REAL ESTATE, RESTORATION_OF_UKRAINE, TECHNOLOGY, ІГОР_СТАКОВИЧЕНКО, СТАКОВИЧЕНКО
Denmark will provide Ukraine with a financing package in the amount of EUR 13.5 million, Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said.
“I am pleased to announce today that we will provide a financing package in the amount of EUR 13.5 million to support concrete measures before the start of winter,” he said on Tuesday during a conference on the restoration of Ukraine, which is being held in Lugano, Switzerland.
he Welsh government has allocated GBP 35 million for military assistance to Ukraine, Scotland has allocated GBP 65 million. Wales has accepted 3,000 Ukrainian refugees, Scotland – 6,000, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. “The Welsh Government has contributed £35m to our military support for Ukraine, and Welsh families have taken in 3,000 refugees,” Johnson said on Twitter Monday.
According to him, he discussed with the First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford the continuation of joint work against Russian aggression.
Johnson also wrote that he also talked with the First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon.
“I’ve just spoken to Nicola Sturgeon to herald the success of UK collaboration supporting Ukraine. I thanked the Scottish Government’s £65 million contribution in upping UK’s military aid to Ukraine to £2.3 billion & efforts to help house 6,000 Ukrainian refugees,” he wrote.
Earlier, materials appeared in the media that allegedly the Welsh government did not agree on the allocation of GBP 35 million as part of a new package of British military assistance to Ukraine for GBP 1 billion.
The first tranche of EUR1 billion of the new EUR9 billion macro-financial assistance program for Ukraine will be received at the end of July, Executive Vice President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis said.
“In July … by the end of the month,” he told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the international Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano on Monday.
Dombrovskis found it difficult to estimate when and in what volumes the next tranches will be received, noting that work is underway on this issue.
As reported, in June the government managed to significantly increase official external financing, which exceeded $4 billion compared to $1.5 billion in May, with an estimated deficit of $5 billion. According to Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko, in July the government expects to maintain the same significant volumes of external financing, as in June. In particular, in July, the second tranche for approximately $1.3 billion of a grant from the United States is expected to be received.
The national program for the restoration and modernization of housing and infrastructure in the regions of Ukraine involves $150-250 billion in investments.
Such figures are published in the Ukraine Recovery Vision “Strong European Ukraine is a magnet for international investments,” presented at a conference in Lugano.
In particular, a study of the situation of displaced persons by region (internal and external migration) will be conducted, a unified state register of citizens in need of housing will be created, the purchase of existing residential apartments will be provided to replenish social and temporary housing funds, the practice of non-profitable rental housing will be introduced, etc.
The national program provides for the construction of new and restoration of destroyed facilities with energy efficiency and barrier-free facilities; renewal of engineering networks with the introduction of innovations (centralized cooling, heat pumps, biomass, etc.); reconstruction and construction of drinking water purification stations, equipment of modern regional drinking water monitoring laboratories, etc.
At the same time, new construction of residential infrastructure must be carried out in accordance with the best practices of urban planning. In particular, a fair transformation of monofunctional cities, the creation of a network of logistics hubs, etc. are proposed.
As part of the national program, the pilot construction of buildings with close to zero energy consumption (NZEB) is planned, including through the restoration of destroyed buildings in accordance with the requirements of the NZEB.
The national program emphasizes the importance of providing the sector with critical materials. In particular, it is planned to localize the production of windows (5-6 million units per year), localize the production of glass (300,000 tonnes per year), localize the production of thermal insulation materials (about 13 million cubic meters per year).
The plan for the restoration of Ukraine in 2022-2032 includes a number of projects in the field of agro-industrial complex, including the construction of irrigation systems on an area of 1 million hectares, as well as the transformation of the country into an “export food factory” by stimulating and developing the processing of plant products.
The corresponding plans were posted on the Ukraine Recovery Plan website.
In addition, over the next decade, it is planned to develop the Ukrainian agro-industrial complex in the following areas: development of agricultural engineering, bioenergy independence, preservation of the agricultural sector under the blockade of ports, meat and dairy independence, fruits and vegetables of Ukraine, return of farmland into economic circulation, promoting the transition of the agro-industrial complex to “green” growth, development of reclamation systems, development of seed production, construction of factories for the production of hybrid seeds and prompt recovery of the agro-industrial complex after the war.
In addition, among the priorities are the comprehensive planning of spatial development and land use in the territory of communities and mapping the territory of Ukraine and the implementation of the national geospatial data infrastructure.
According to the data on the project website, the Ukraine Recovery Plan is aimed at accelerating sustainable economic growth. The plan defines a list of national programs to achieve key results.
In total, the program provides for the implementation of 850 projects during 2022-2032, which will allow Ukraine to enter the TOP-25 countries in the world in terms of the Human Capital Index and the Economic Complexity Index.
