2023 should be the year of early reconstruction of Ukraine, in which foreign business can join today. This became a key topic for discussion during the meeting in Kyiv of the First Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Svyridenko with representatives of the largest Federation of French employers - MEDEF.

Representatives of French companies working in energy, infrastructure, construction, medical technology, and healthcare, and others are in Ukraine on an official business mission. Yuliya Svyrydenko already had a substantive conversation with some of them last December - during a visit to Paris. Therefore, the parties continued the dialogue regarding the need of the reconstruction of Ukraine and the possibilities of attracting French business, investments and implementation of joint projects to it.

"Early reconstruction will be one of the main challenges for Ukraine this year. After all, our task is to return people home as soon as possible. It is possible to achieve this only by overcoming the consequences of Russian aggression and restoring the destroyed social infrastructure, housing, and damaged power system. The Ukrainian Government sees great prospects for the involvement of French companies in reconstruction. Therefore, in order to realize these opportunities, the French business calls for a dialogue with your government - regarding the provision of financial guarantees that can be used to attract soft loans under the guarantees of the Export Credit Agency of France - Bpifrance", Yuliya Svyrydenko said.

The parties paid more attention to the insurance of war risks, because guarantees of their coverage will encourage businesses not to wait for the war's end and to invest in Ukraine right now. Ukraine is already observing significant attention from investors to projects, in particular, accumulated on the Advantage Ukraine platform. Therefore, the introduction of effective war risk insurance mechanisms can significantly accelerate the process of attracting investments.

Earlier, the French government allocated 1.2 billion euros of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine. Of the allocated funds, EUR 1 billion can be used to guarantee credit risks, and EUR 200 million to attract Ukraine to direct lending from the French Treasury. At the same time, the condition for lending in the amount of EUR 200 million is the involvement of at least 50% of French manufacturers and contractors in implementing relevant projects.

At the same time, the guarantee of credit risks requires the involvement of French businesses in the projects at the level of only 20%. Under such conditions, Ukraine will receive extremely favorable preferential financing. At the same time, all risks are covered by Bpifrance.

Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF) is the largest employers' federation in France. It has over 750,000 member companies, 90 percent of which are small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than 50 employees.

MEDEF engages in lobbying at the local, regional, national, and pan-European levels.