This year, Ukraine celebrates 30 years of cooperation with the World Bank Group. On September 3, 1992, Ukraine signed the Articles of Agreement of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, it was one of the turning points in the development of the country's financial system.
Ukraine is a member of all five institutions of the World Bank Group: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), International Development Association (IDA), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the second creditor of Ukraine among the international credit and financial organizations, after the IMF. For 30 years of fruitful cooperation, the World Bank has approved 70 loans for Ukraine with a total amount of more than USD 14.4 billion and EUR 2.1 billion, of which USD 11.8 billion and EUR 1.2 billion have been received.
The financial resources received from the World Bank are used for financial and technical support of the state budget, support our state implement institutional and structural reforms, and implement long-term investment projects in the priority areas of the country's economic development.
During 1996-1998, the Bank's support became a catalyst for laying the foundations of the modern economy and state institutions. The parties signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Strategy of World Bank Assistance to Ukraine for 1996-1998. It provided for the allocation of loans for the modernization and development of the agricultural sector, the coal industry, and enterprises, and the provision of proper transparent management of state institutions and the development of market-oriented institutions.
The World Bank is an important partner of the Government of Ukraine. The Bank provides financial and consulting assistance in the preparation, implementation, and monitoring of joint investment and system projects aimed at carrying out large-scale macroeconomic reforms in Ukraine. Over the years of cooperation, thanks to the financial support of the World Bank, the reform of the government, financial and judicial systems, the demonopolization of the economy, and the strengthening of anti-corruption institutions were carried out. In addition, the Bank's funds were directed to the modernization and reform of municipal infrastructure, the energy sector, the agricultural sector, the social system, health care, and the education sector.
A recent example of the success of cooperation was the stabilization of the situation in 2014. The country was in a state of recession after the start of the aggression of the Russian Federation, which caused a significant reduction in reserves, a decrease in investment, the level of consumption, a high level of problem loans, an outflow of deposits, and a fall in the national currency.
In cooperation with the Bank, the reform of the banking sector and the business environment was carried out to grow the private sector, attract new investments, and direct loans to the real sector, energy, health care, social protection and water supply. Thanks to these steps, Ukraine has become more resistant to crises, as demonstrated during the pandemic. In particular, the Ukrainian economy was the only one among developing countries that during the economic crisis of 2020-2021, caused by the pandemic of coronavirus infection COVID-19, reduced the debt to GDP.
Today, the support of the World Bank is of particular importance for Ukraine, because the financial system faced a key challenge: ensuring all priority expenses under the conditions of a significant decrease in state budget revenues due to full-scale invasion.
Currently, Ukraine needs international assistance to ensure the full functioning of the financial system, finance priority social expenditures and support the economy. From the first days of the war of the russia against Ukraine, the World Bank provided unprecedented support to our country, in particular, in March 2022, in quick manner, an additional package of support for Ukraine in the amount of more than EUR 500 million was approved, which was directed to the general fund of the state budget for covering urgent social and humanitarian costs. During martial law in Ukraine, the World Bank approved three loans totaling EUR 1.85 billion and USD 91.16 million.
To provide support to Ukraine during the war, the World Bank created a new effective financial mechanism: the Trust Fund of many donors, thanks to which it was possible to attract grant funds in the total amount of EUR 1.088 billion and USD 7.5 billion from countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia and Iceland.
Ukraine strives to further strengthen friendly partnership relations with the World Bank, improving the lives of Ukrainian citizens through common efforts.
We thank the Bank for the 30-year path of development of the Ukrainian economy and for the effective cooperation that helped us become stable in the face of today's challenges.
