During a working visit to Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany, Ukraine’s Minister of Economy, Environment and Agriculture, Oleksii Soboliev, met with representatives of the German Government.
In particular, he held meetings with Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany Katherina Reiche, Federal Minister for the Environment Carsten Schneider, Federal Minister for Agriculture Alois Rainer, State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) Niels Annen, Parliamentary State Secretary Stefan Rouenhoff, Chancellor’s Advisor for G7/G20 Affairs Lewin Hölle, and Chairman of the Board of the German Society for International Cooperation (GIZ) Torsten Schäfer-Gümbel.
“Germany is among our key international partners, and it is now crucial for us to have a substantive dialogue at the highest level. We have defined clear plans for the next three months focused on priority sectors of the economy: industrial development, critical minerals, green recovery projects, food security, human capital development, and business support,” said Minister Oleksii Soboliev.
Among the main topics of the meetings was the concept of an “Industrial Ramstein.” The Ukrainian side proposed creating an intergovernmental program that, through grants and export financing, would encourage German businesses to enter the Ukrainian market, supply equipment, and participate in industrial recovery. This would be an effective way to attract private capital by combining state support with private investment. The German partners expressed interest and readiness to discuss further steps.
Another important issue discussed was the export of biomethane from Ukraine.
The German government is currently preparing the necessary legislative changes to unblock imports from non-EU countries. In addition, Minister Soboliev discussed cooperation between geological services and the involvement of the German KfW development bank in projects related to the extraction of lithium, titanium, and graphite — in particular, as co-investors in projects of the Ukrainian-American Reconstruction Investment Fund.
Support from partners in implementing EU climate directives, particularly the Emissions Trading System (ETS), remains important.
Ukraine will study Germany’s experience, as the “clean industry” sector is the fastest growing in the country, largely developed through state regulation.
On food security, the parties discussed attracting German investment in agricultural processing in Ukraine for further export to global markets. They also discussed cooperation on vegetable storage construction. Additionally, Ukraine is interested in Germany’s technical support for effective forest management, transition to European standards, and automation of logging.
The meetings also addressed digitalization and human capital development. Germany is already supporting important digital systems in Ukraine, such as “ePermit” (єДозвіл) and “Puls,” which use artificial intelligence to process requests.
The next stage of cooperation will focus on digital solutions for the labor market.
Ahead are the Ukrainian-German Business Summit in Berlin in December and the “Green Week” (Grüne Woche) exhibition in January, where Ukrainian producers will participate.
