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🌐About prospects of infrastructural cooperation during “Europe - Poland - Ukraine: Cooperate together” conference

Oleksandr Chervak, CEO of CBU, took part in the Polish-Ukrainian conference "Europe - Poland - Ukraine: Cooperate together", organized as part of the "Business for Ukraine Center" project, created in cooperation with the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers (ZPP) and the "Totalizator sportowy" fund.

🗣️ Oleksandr Chervak ​​spoke as a speaker in the panel "Infrastructural cooperation: development of transport infrastructure and transshipment terminals".

✔️Participants of the event were also:

👤Valeriy Tkachev, Deputy Director of the Department of Commercial Work of Ukrzaliznytsia

👤Jakub Troszyński, Ekspert ds. Infrastruktury, ZPP

👤Andriy Smorodin, President of the National Platform "Three Seas Initiative - Ukraine"

👤Viktor Dovhan, Advisor of the Polish FGSA Foundation

The panel was moderated by Nazarii Volianskyi, Director of the ZPP Representative Office in Ukraine.

🏠They discussed the prospects of Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in the transport, logistics, construction and infrastructure spheres, as well as ways of developing trade relations between Ukraine and Poland.

✔️Oleksandr Chervak ​​informed his colleagues about the state of the construction industry today and talked about the main challenges the industry is facing.

📉 According to him, in the first year after the start of the full-scale invasion, the construction industry of Ukraine lost about 60-70% of its capacity. During 2023, the construction volume index increased by 25%, and as of today, in 2024, the dynamics of its increase to 40% are observed. The growth is due to the construction of engineering structures, infrastructure facilities and non-residential buildings. Now the state of the industry has recovered to the level of 2016 with the dynamics of further growth.

He noted that in 2024, the dynamics of construction are ahead of the economy in general. In particular, the construction of residential buildings resumed, and the industrial index showed an increase of 11% in 2024, when the GDP increased by 6.5%.

⚖️Oleksandr Chervak said that currently the share of the construction sector in the total GDP of Ukraine is 2%, despite the fact that in Europe, including in Poland, this figure is 7% on average. It is expected that with the start of large-scale reconstruction, this indicator will significantly exceed the average European level.

He expressed hope for an increase in construction potential in the future, because during the period of reconstruction, Ukraine will become a promising platform for new projects and investments.

🔴Oleksandr Chervak named the main problems that the industry is currently facing:

🔸 shortage of personnel

🔸 lack of funding

🔸currency fluctuations and inflationary processes

🔸energy crisis and increase in electricity tariffs for business

🔸 risk of tax burden on business

According to him, over the past two years, the number of workers in Ukraine has decreased by 40%, and now the shortage of specialists is quite significant.

☝️To solve this problem in Ukraine, there are several areas of employee training, in particular:

🔹programs of professional and technical education

🔹training programs for women to master professions in which men used to work

🔹involvement of rehabilitated veterans in construction processes

Oleksandr Chervak ​​informed international partners about promising directions for investments in Ukraine. In particular, he emphasized the need for building materials and the need for investment in residential and industrial real estate.

💬"The survey of the business activity of the construction business indicates that Ukrainian construction companies see providing themselves with work in the short term for 5-6 months on average. However, despite this, Ukrainian investors are ready to increase financing to increase the capacities of the construction industry", said Oleksandr Chervak. - "Such decisions demonstrate Ukraine's openness to speeding up the processes of rebuilding Ukraine and restoring the Ukrainian economy."

🤝The conference participants discussed possible ways of attracting investments to Ukraine.

🗣️So, Valeriy Tkachev called on foreign partners to increase the volume of railway transportation in Ukraine and emphasized the need to develop the railway infrastructure. He noted that the railway infrastructure of Ukraine includes 16 western border crossings, which are theoretically designed for the transportation of 6.5 million tons of cargo, but currently only 3.5 million tons of cargo are delivered.

"Currently, the existing infrastructural possibilities are not being used to their full extent, therefore we invite both Polish businesses that import goods to Ukraine and Ukrainian exporters to increase transportation by railway. We are ready for this, we have the necessary infrastructure and the most important thing is the desire," the expert added.

🗣️Jakub Troszyński told his colleagues about the environmental impact assessment procedures and noted that for the sake of quality implementation of European directives in this area, Ukraine needs to start implementing European environmental legislation today.

He also reported on the construction of highways for fast connection between Ukraine and Poland and added that cooperation projects between the countries are already being implemented, and Polish business is ready to invest in Ukraine.

🗣️Andriy Smorodin introduced the main goal of the "Three Seas Initiative - Ukraine" - increasing Ukraine's opportunities and developing new methods of economic integration.

"First of all, we need to improve our mobility in order to strengthen trade ties with European countries. It is necessary to develop railway connections between countries for investments and to attract new developments to Ukraine", Andriy Smorodin emphasized.

The expert named logistics, infrastructure, energy, digitalization and military mobility as the main directions for projects and investments.

🗣️Viktor Dovhan called on Polish business to invest in infrastructure projects of Ukraine, in particular in the development of international road connections.

He also shared the initiative of Polish business to invest in one of the Ukrainian ports put up for auction as part of the "Great Privatization" by the State Property Fund of Ukraine.

Viktor Dovhan noted that although the port is currently inactive, it has great potential and after the end of the war may have good prospects for the development of Ukraine's trade capacity.

The expert emphasized that the main problem of Polish investors is that they focus not on production, but on supplies, which in these conditions are not the most necessary option for investment.

As part of the Polish-Ukrainian conference "Europe - Poland - Ukraine: Cooperate together", two more discussion panels "Poland as the largest trade partner of Ukraine" and "Scaling Polish-Ukrainian trade cooperation: development potential" were held.

WE WILL WIN AND REBUILD EVERYTHING! 💪

TOGETHER TO VICTORY! 

GLORY TO UKRAINE! 💙💛