Educational platform Prometheus and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) open the program “Bootcamp economic recovery” with 60 thousand grant places for training of Ukrainian entrepreneurs, the co-founder of Prometheus Ivan Primachenko in Facebook reported.
According to the message, Ukrainian entrepreneurs will be taught by Harvard, the University of Virginia’s Darden Business School and Rice University, as well as the co-founders of Novaya Poshta, Preply, Eugene Klopotenko and other leading entrepreneurs in Ukraine.
The program includes four courses: “How to Start Your Own Business in Times of Uncertainty: A Step-by-Step Guide from Ukraine’s Top Entrepreneurs”; “CS50: Fundamentals of Programming for Business Professionals” from Harvard University; “Grow to Greatness: Smart Growth for Private Business” from the Darden Business School at Virginia Tech; and “Finance for Non-Financial People” from Rice University.
“I haven’t yet seen top American universities open their business courses for free, and in a different language. This is a unique chance that should be taken here and now,” Primachenko wrote.
Registration for the Economic Recovery Bootcamp program is open from today at https://prometheus ua/prometheus-plus/bootcamp).
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has signed a EUR50 million loan agreement with Ukraine’s state-owned Ukreximbank, the loan funds will be used to finance private clients and municipalities.
“Ensuring uninterrupted financing through time-tested partner financial institutions such as Ukreximbank despite the war so that the private sector and municipalities can continue to operate, provide services and support the country is a priority for the EBRD in Ukraine,” EBRD Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Matteo Patrone said in a release Friday.
It is specified that the EBRD’s special crisis response fund covers the risk on the EUR25 million loan.
“During the war and post-war reconstruction phase, it is very important for Ukreximbank’s clients in priority sectors to have access to investment, commercial financing and war risk coverage. The new EBRD financing will certainly contribute to greater sustainability and adaptability of the Ukrainian economy,” said in turn Oleksandr Shchur, a member of the supervisory board of Ukreximbank.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine at the beginning of May, Ukreximbank with total assets of 275.46 billion UAH is the third largest Ukrainian bank among 65 operating in the country.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and 19 financial development institutions (DFIs) signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Conference on Reconstruction of Ukraine in London to promote joint investments in the private sector of the Ukrainian economy.
“The signing of this memorandum … was the next step in the implementation of the agreement between the EBRD and the G7 DFIs to create a common platform for investment in Ukraine, which was announced at the G7 meeting in Tokyo last month,” the bank said in a press release.
It is noted that the main goal of creating the joint platform between the EBRD and DFI is to promote co-financing by strengthening cooperation and dialogue between partners in the context of providing assistance for reconstruction of Ukraine.
It is noted that the priority of investment initiatives will be given to the private sector of Ukraine’s economy.
“Ukraine’s financial needs during the recovery phase will be very significant, and therefore will require the combined efforts of financial institutions. To maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of their activities, Ukraine’s partners must ensure careful coordination among themselves. The private sector will play an extremely important role in the recovery of the Ukrainian economy,” stressed the EBRD.
The Bank points out that it is ready to work together with the DFI to improve the efficiency and quality of assistance to Ukraine and neighboring countries affected by Russia’s military aggression.
It is specified that the memorandum was signed by British International Investment, Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, DEG (Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft), Development Finance Institute Canada (DFIC), Japan Bank for International Cooperation, Japan International Cooperation Agency, Proparco, USA International Development Finance Corporation, Belgium Investment Company for developing countries.
Also in this list are Compañía Española de financiación del desarrollo (Cofides), Finnfund, Investment Fund for Developing Countries, Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden, Norfund, Oesterreichische Entwicklungsbank, Sociedade para o Financiamento do desenvolvimento, instituicao financeira de credito, Swiss Investment Fund for Developing Markets and Swedfund international.
Ukraine after the war will be very interesting for private investors to develop renewable energy sources, said Harry Boyd Carpenter, managing director for climate strategy and implementation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
“There’s also going to be a huge wave of investment in renewable energy. Ukraine does have a success story because before the war there was an extraordinary boom in RE – 5 GW of privately financed renewable energy. And that’s the template for Ukraine in the future,” Carpenter said during a discussion on Ukraine’s transition from coal to clean energy ahead of the London Recovery Conference (URC2023), scheduled for June 21-22.
At the same time, according to him, Ukraine will also receive public sector money, but it should be spent primarily on the development of nuclear energy, as well as on construction and reconstruction of networks, to ensure, among other things, the work of decentralized system of renewable energy.
At the same time, the top manager of the EBRD called the commitment of Ukraine to abandon coal in power generation extremely important, noting that this course determines the further development of not only energy, but also the economy and the whole country.
He noted that the contours of the energy sector of Ukraine in the future are quite clear – it will be built on nuclear and renewable energy, and the country has huge resources in all these areas.
At the same time, Carpenter noted that RES used to develop under conditions of “imperfect market and tariffs”, calling it a difficult transition period, but expressed his belief that in the future their development will be based on three fundamental pillars that will remove these problems.
“The first will be a commitment to a green future (…). The second is market reforms. We need a well-functioning, transparent, clearly delineated market. And the third will be integration with the European energy system, which is already in full swing,” the EBRD top manager pointed out.
Besides, Carpenter assured that EBRD intends to continue to support Ukraine financially.
“We will provide Ukraine with EUR3 billion of support. And we are already halfway there. Much of this has come in the form of liquidity support for the energy sector – Naftogaz and Ukrenergo,” the banker emphasized.
Announcing URC2023 on June, 19 First vice-premier Yulia Sviridenko announced the goals in 10 years to show the new Ukraine and to reach over 100 GW of new green power generation capacity, to produce 40 million tons of “green” steel and to bring GDP to $1 trillion per year from $161 billion in 2022.
As reported, at the end of December 2022, NEC Ukrenergo, inter alia, attracted EUR300 million of credit funds from the EBRD to purchase equipment to restore substations subjected to massive Russian missile strikes, as well as to replenish working capital.
NJSC Naftogaz attracted a EUR300 million loan from the EBRD at the end of last year, and later, in early 2023, it received a grant of nearly EUR200 million for the purchase of gas.
According to the president of the bank, Odile Renaud-Basso, the EBRD in 2022 increased the amount of investment in projects in Ukraine to EUR1.7 billion compared to approximately EUR1 billion that it invested annually before. It plans to invest EUR3bn in Ukraine during 2022-2023.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a $30 million financial package to Astarta, one of the country’s largest sugar producers, to cope with the adverse conditions caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine and ensure more sustainable operations.
According to the agroholding’s announcement on the Warsaw Stock Exchange website Friday, the package consists of a $21 million loan from the EBRD and $9 million from the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) aimed at sustainable development. Technical cooperation support for the legal review of the operation will be provided by the Technical Cooperation Fund of Japan and the EBRD.
“Funding for the holding company’s investment plan will help Astarte continue to develop agriculture, soybean processing and sugar production amid the instability associated with the war. The liquidity support provided through this loan will help support operations and maintain the production and export volumes needed for food security, while supporting Astarta’s nearly 7,000 employees along with employees of supply chain partners,” the statement noted.
According to the agri-holding, the financing will be used to modernize and improve the energy efficiency of existing production facilities, implement climate-smart agricultural practices to improve business sustainability, reduce production and energy costs while improving productivity and operational efficiency. The funds raised will also be used as working capital to support the agricultural holding’s operations at pre-war levels.
This is the first transaction in Ukraine supported by the EBRD’s High Impact Climate Program for the corporate sector financed by the Clean Technology Fund. The loan is characterized by an innovative blended finance structure where the price is linked to achieving climate change goals, Astarta noted.
As reported, the EBRD, which accelerated lending to Ukraine after the Russian invasion in February 2022, pledged to invest €3 billion in the country between 2022 and 2023. Food security is one of the five priority investment areas, along with energy security, vital infrastructure, trade finance and private sector support.
“Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine. It consists of six sugar factories, farms with land bank of 220 thousand hectares and dairy farms with 22 thousand cattle, oil extraction plant in Globino (Poltava region), seven elevators and biogas complex.
Agroindustrial holding Astarta, the largest sugar producer in Ukraine, received EUR65.16 mln of net profit in 2022, which is 46.8% less compared with 2021. The company’s EBITDA decreased by 23.2% to EUR154.77 mln last year, while revenues increased by 3.8% to EUR510.07 mln.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is lending EUR10.6 million to the municipal enterprise (CE) Electrotrans (Khmelnitsky) to finance the purchase of new trolleybuses, as well as equipment for maintenance and diagnostics, according to a press release from the bank.
The EBRD loan is part of a financing package that also includes investment grants from the EU Neighbourhood Investment Platform of up to EUR2.75 million and up to EUR1.7 million from the EBRD’s Special Crisis Response Fund, which receives a contribution from the U.S. government, according to the statement Friday.
The loan and grants will be used to purchase new trolleybuses with remote monitoring systems, spare parts and service equipment.
In turn, the city will cover the cost of installing surveillance cameras inside the trolleybuses and upgrading the trolleybus stops, traction substations and trolleybus depot in the amount of EUR1.5 million.
The press release reminds us that the project is part of the EBRD’s Green Cities program, which Khmelnitsky joined in 2019. The first project, signed in October 2020, concerned improving solid waste management.
“Both projects are extremely important to the residents of Khmelnitsky: the ongoing project – to improve solid waste management – and the project to purchase new trolleybuses. We are glad that we can implement them exactly with the EBRD, our long-term partner, despite the war caused by Russian aggression,” the press service quotes Khmelnitsky Mayor Alexander Simchyshyn, who represented the city in Warsaw at the signing of the agreement with EBRD Managing Director for Sustainable Infrastructure Development Nandita Parshad.
As reported, earlier Simchyshyn noted that up to 45 low-floor trolleybuses are planned to buy with EBRD funds and grants, but at the same time, their number will depend on the cost of trolleybuses, which has increased.
The EBRD press service states that after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Khmelnytskyi faced a large flow of internally displaced persons (IDPs), which put a strain on city services.
The EBRD resumed work with Khmelnitsky in June, adding an IDP needs assessment to the Green City Action Plan, with funding provided by the Swedish government.
The EBRD’s Green Cities program was founded in 2016. Since then, it has helped more than 50 cities on three continents, with more than EUR5 billion spent on its support.
In Ukraine, Lviv, Kiev, Kryvyi Rig, Dnipro, Khmelnitsky joined it, among others.
As it was reported, the EBRD together with donors undertook to provide financing in the amount of EUR3 billion for support of functioning of business and economy in Ukraine in 2022-2023. In 2022, the bank allocated EUR1.7bn to support Ukraine and attracted EUR200m from partner financial institutions.
