In Munich, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a meeting with heads of international investment companies, including Allianz, Amundi, Barrick Gold, BlackRock, Deutsche Bank, Fortescue, HypoVereinsbank, Lazard, Moore Capital Management, New York Life Investments, PIMCO, Relativity Space, Siemens Energy, and State Street. The meeting was moderated by the Adviser to the President on Economic Development, Chrystia Freeland.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized that one of the main areas for attracting investment and rebuilding the country, both during the war and after its end, is the energy sector.
“Today, this is our greatest challenge, and we are asking all our partners to help us with energy in any way possible. Clearly, we need to decentralize it, and we have already begun doing so. I believe this is a very smart investment because today you are helping people, and tomorrow, in my view, it will benefit everyone,” the President said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed that as a result of Russian attacks, Ukraine has lost approximately 10 GW of electricity generation capacity and is working every day to restore it. According to the Head of State, our country is open to relevant investments.
The second area discussed was drone production. Volodymyr Zelenskyy highlighted the European Union’s decision to provide Ukraine with EUR 90 billion in financial support, two-thirds of which will be allocated to military infrastructure. Part of this will go to Ukrainian drone production, but our capacities are greater.
“This area is therefore also open. The shortfall is around 15 billion per year. We see that after the war, these capacities could serve other countries as well,” the Head of State added.
The President noted that there is already strong interest from other countries in Ukrainian drone production and spoke about the Drone Wall project, which is also aimed at enhancing security.
During the meeting, the parties discussed rallying greater support for Ukraine, investments in the energy and defense sectors, and proposals for our country’s post-war recovery plan. Company representatives praised the innovative approach of Ukrainians in the defense sphere and expressed interest in partnership.
Additionally, a group of investors is ready to work with the Ukrainian Government to develop ten priority projects for cooperation.
The parties also discussed work on security guarantees, among which one of the key economic guarantees for Ukraine and all of Europe is our country’s membership in the European Union. Investors emphasized that it is important for them to have confidence that Russian aggression will not recur in the future.
