Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal has said that $1 trillion of GDP in 10 years is Ukraine’s unrealized potential.
“$1 trillion of GDP in 10 years is the unrealized potential of our country. $1 trillion was lost by all citizens of the country due to constant changes in vectors, unfinished reforms, lack of a long-term economic strategy, corruption, and poor governance,” Shmyhal said during the presentation of the country’s economic audit and vectors of economic development until 2030 in Kyiv on Friday.
The unrealized potential of Ukraine in the use of water resources is estimated at $12 billion, while the potential of using forest resources is at $40 billion, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said.
“We had to expand the area of our forests and use wood mainly for the development of our own furniture production. Only a change in the guidelines for the export of raw materials to the production of our own products will give the country at least $40 billion in 10 years,” the prime minister said during the presentation of the audit of the Ukrainian economy and vectors of economic development until 2030 in Kyiv on Friday.
According to Shmyhal, water resources have $12 billion of underutilized potential.
“Ukraine has ignored the development of hydropower for years. We use only half of this potential. We use the potential of aquaculture, the development of fisheries. We use only a quarter. Irrigation is developed less than 20% of what it should be. For example, an effective irrigation system in the southern regions of Ukraine would give an opportunity to increase harvests by 2.5-3 times and this is also an untapped potential that will give the country additional GDP,” the prime minister said.
Ukrainian PM predicts growth in cost of farmland fivefold in 10 years, $85 bln of extra GDP.
The potential reintegration of Donbas might add up to 1.5 percentage points (pp) to Ukraine’s GDP growth during two or three years, Bank of America (BofA) has said in its analytical review.
BofA said that the potential integration of territories could increase nominal GDP by 3-5 pp and accelerate growth by 1-1.5 pp in the period after the post-war recovery.
The analysts said that the post-war recovery might be partially financed with external donor assistance.
Both Donetsk and Luhansk regions accounted for more than 15.7% of Ukraine’s GDP in 2012, before the war. The contribution of these regions, still under Ukrainian control, fell to about 12.7% of GDP in 2017. BofA believes that this might indicate a one-time increase in relation to nominal GDP values of at least 3%.
According to the analysts, the normalization of economic relations with the region could accelerate the growth of real GDP in the first year by 0.5 pp.
The founder of Alibaba Group Jack Ma has said at the Kyiv International Economic Forum that he fell for Ukraine a long time ago and sees a large potential for development.
“Such a wonderful combination like this cannot fail,” he said at the forum, noting the fertile land, open and ready for change people, beautiful women and rich history among Ukraine’s advantages.
The founder of Alibaba said that there are few countries in the world where the president is a trifle over forty, the prime minister is thirtysomething, and some ministers are 28, and this is positive.
Ma said that he would invite his business partners to visit Ukraine.
In his opinion, Ukrainian-Chinese relations should be actively developing.
He also called for changing the situation when AliExpress products go to Ukraine from four to seven days “like in the last century.”
During his visit to Ukraine, Ma met with the president, visited a number of universities and will also be on a visit to the UNIT.City innovation park.
A meeting of the Ukrainian-Polish intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation will be held in the near future, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. “Poland is already our second largest trading partner in the EU, but the potential of this cooperation has no borders,” he said at a joint press conference with President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday.
Zelensky hopes for an active dialogue between the governments of the two countries in the framework of the intergovernmental commission for economic cooperation.
He expressed hope that the next meeting of the commission will take place in the near future.
The restoration of navigation on the Prypiat River will make it possible to reveal the transit potential of Ukraine through the development of a river transport corridor from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, Head of the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority Raivis Veckagans has said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
“At the initiative of the Ministry of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Belarus, and also with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Royal Haskoning DHV in May of this year completed a survey of navigable hydraulic structures of the E-40 waterway, connecting the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea through the Wisla River, the Zakhidny Bug (the Western Bug), the Prypiat River and the Dnipro River, in the territory of Belarus. In the near future, a working group with the participation of specialists from the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority, the Dredging Fleet branch of the authority, and the State Hydrographic Service will conduct similar work on the Ukrainian stretch of the Prypiat and Dnipro rivers,” he said.
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