The Ukrainian delegation, comprising Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Stepan Kubiv, Minister of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandr Shlapak and Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine Pavlo Sheremeta, has completed the agenda of its visit to Washington where it took part in the Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group.
During a three-day visit to the USA, the members of the Ukrainian delegation participated in the official events held as part of the Spring Meeting and held approximately 40 bilateral meetings.
In particular, the Ukrainian delegation held negotiations with the senior managers of the IMF, the World Bank Group, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, US State Department and other public institutions of this and other countries, as well as the senior management teams of central banks of Austria, Canada, Cyprus, the Netherlands and Poland.
At all the meetings foreign partners pledged the full support of the Ukrainian authorities in their efforts to reform the financial and other sectors of the economy and expressed their readiness to provide a sizeable financial assistance under these programs and projects.
During negotiations with the senior management team of the World Bank, Mr Stepan Kubiv appreciated the constructive work undertaken by the mission of this financial institution in Ukraine towards drafting a loan agreement as part of the Development Policy Loan program, pointing out that that the Ukrainian side saw eye to eye with their partners.
The Governor of the National Bank said that Ukraine had embarked on an ambitious regulatory reform plan, and that is why speeding up the process of providing a multisectoral loan to back the Development Policy and a loan to support the financial sector reforms are crucial for the Ukrainian state. He pointed out that the progress had been made in the negotiations over a number of investment projects that were instrumental in the county's economic development; especially those that help reduce Ukraine's dependence on imported energy, create jobs and tackle poverty.
The sides explored the possibility for launching new projects in areas that are of great importance for Ukraine, in which the World Bank has the high level of competence, specifically, deregulation, improvement of investment climate and backing the competiveness of Ukraine's economy.
In addition, the sides agreed that the World Bank would be able to demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of so called “single group” set up in Ukraine. In this context, hopes have been raised by the enhanced coordinated efforts by the International Finance Corporation and the Government of Ukraine. The biggest outcome of the cooperation with the IFC could be achieved through providing support to the priority areas, including the financial sector, creation of new jobs, reorientation of the manufacturing sector, greater inflows of foreign direct investment, etc.
At the same time, a status update on the implementation of joint projects with the EBRD, and the launch of new ones were discussed at the meeting with EBRD President Sir Suma Chakrabarti.
Given the success of the previous projects, the EBRD will consider the possibility of opening a line of credit worth as much as 500 million euros to support small and medium-sized enterprises that could be implemented by the National Bank of Ukraine.
The EBRD's decision to set up a branch office in Lviv confirms the EBRD's commitment to expanding cooperation with Ukraine.