Sergii Marchenko met with the US Deputy Secretary of State
On May 17, 2023, a meeting was held between Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergii Marchenko and United States Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Richard Verma. The US delegation included Deputy Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment Jose Fernandez and US Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Ukraine Bridget Brink.
On the Ukrainian side, Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine Olga Zykova and Deputy Minister of Finance of Ukraine Aleksander Kava took part in the meeting.
During the meeting, the parties discussed the state of Ukraine's economy, transparency of the use of direct budget assistance from the USA, cooperation with the IMF under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program, as well as needs for the recovery of Ukraine, in particular, in the energy sector.
“Thanks to the direct budget support of the United States, we continue to ensure stable public administration in Ukraine and partially compensate for the social and humanitarian expenditures of the state budget. Ukraine uses the raised funds in a responsible, transparent and accountable manner. In addition to the urgent social needs of the state budget, we are also focusing the attention of our partners on the rapid recovery of Ukraine, which should begin already this year,” said the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine.
Sergii Marchenko emphasized that the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, together with the World Bank, implements the PEACE in Ukraine Project and ensures the transparency of the attraction and use of funds provided by development partners. The Ministry of Finance monitors the use of direct budget support from the US Government together with Deloitte Consulting, which implements the USAID SOERA project, and performs a verification according to agreed procedures to determine the eligible public expenditures made by Ukraine in 2022 under the Project with the auditing company PriceWaterhouseCoopers Ukraine.
During the meeting, the parties also discussed economic assistance and the recovery plan for Ukraine, focusing on two areas of US assistance for rapid recovery needs:
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ensuring the security of the energy system on the eve of next winter, restoration, decentralization and introduction of green standards of the energy sector;
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economic assistance to facilitate trade reorientation of Ukraine towards the EU, as well as the return the economy to growth after a 30% contraction in 2022.
Sergii Marchenko also emphasized the need to create favorable conditions for attracting private investment to develop the economic environment in Ukraine:
“The Government of Ukraine is currently working on creating a “healthy” environment for private sector investments. This will be underpinned by good governance, the rule of law and anti-corruption efforts. Ukraine is interested in private investments in defense, agriculture, IT, renewable energy, gas production and storage, logistics and construction. Our efforts will be directed as much as possible to insurance of military risks for potential investors, public-private partnership, assistance in financing projects supporting small and medium-sized businesses, which, in turn, provide a large number of jobs.”