Ukraine conference: More than 100 concrete agreements
Published: Wednesday, Jun 12th 2024, 16:00
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Loans for small businesses, more town twinning, initiative for training: According to German Development Minister Svenja Schulze, more than 100 agreements were signed at the reconstruction conference for Ukraine in Berlin.
These include declarations of intent between companies and between governments as well as agreements for alliances and initiatives, said the SPD politician on Wednesday during an appearance with Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Yulia Svyrydenko.
Four "Berlin dimensions" of reconstruction have been defined: the business dimension, the human dimension, the local dimension and the EU dimension, said Schulze. The format is not a donor conference to raise money, but is about networking. According to Schulze, more than 3,000 representatives from politics, business and international organizations took part in the two-day conference. Three key results:
Alliance to strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises
Together with 12 other countries and 17 development organizations, Germany and Ukraine have launched an alliance to strengthen small and medium-sized enterprises. "Ukraine needs a strong economy in order to survive the war and rebuild what has been destroyed," said Schulze.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are considered the backbone of the Ukrainian economy. According to the German government, they contribute to two thirds of value creation in Ukraine and create more than 80 percent of jobs there. One of the aims of the new alliance is to provide favorable loans for such companies.
"One of the most effective levers for reconstruction is concessional financing for small and medium-sized Ukrainian companies," said Schulze. The total commitments amounted to over 7 billion euros for current and new SME programs. New programs accounted for over 4.5 billion euros of this sum.
Svyrydenko said that small and medium-sized enterprises played "a key role in the reconstruction of the country". Medium-sized companies had been hit particularly hard by the Russian invasion. The minister spoke of a decisive contribution to the future of Ukraine and its current resilience.
Boosting reconstruction with town twinning
Germany calls for the expansion of town twinning. "Let's work together so that every Ukrainian municipality has at least one international partner," demanded Schulze at a forum with German and Ukrainian mayors. A German-Ukrainian partnership network comprises over 200 municipalities. In total, there are more than 2,200 Ukrainian partnerships with municipalities in around 60 countries - particularly in Poland, Germany, Hungary, Romania and Lithuania.
1000 small Ukrainian municipalities still without partnerships
Overall, however, only around a third of the almost 1500 Ukrainian municipalities have a partnership with a municipality elsewhere - 1000 often small municipalities are therefore still without a partner, said Schulze. "For the reconstruction of Ukraine and its integration into the EU, it is necessary to have everyone on board," she emphasized. Together with the Council of European Municipalities and Regions, a networking app is being developed with which municipalities can create their own profiles and search for partners.
Among those present were the mayor of the Ukrainian capital Kiev, Vitali Klitschko, as well as the heads of the cities of Lviv (Lemberg) on the border with Poland, Gdansk (Gdansk) in Poland and Freiburg and Teltow in Germany, all of which have partnerships with Ukrainian cities. "We are strongest together," said the mayor of Teltow, Thomas Schmidt, whose municipality has a trilateral partnership with the Ukrainian city of Khotyn and a Polish city.
Training initiative launched
Germany and more than 50 international organizations, states and companies are launching an initiative to train 180,000 specialists for reconstruction. "No matter how often Russia destroys power lines, hospitals or buildings, Ukrainians will have the knowledge and skills to rebuild them," Schulze said on Tuesday. The members of the Skills Alliance for Ukraine for reconstruction will provide a total of more than 700 million euros for this purpose.
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