While on an official visit to the Republic of Croatia, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal met with representatives of Croatian businesses, thanked them for their assistance in defence and called on them to join projects to restore the country.
“Today, Ukraine is a country of opportunities for private capital,” the Prime Minister stressed and voiced promising areas of cooperation for the Croatian business community.
This includes humanitarian demining. The Prime Minister underlined that one of the priority tasks facing Ukraine was to survey the land and neutralise the hazardous remnants as soon as possible.
“We already feel Croatia’s support in this. 67 Croatian DOK-ING demining machines are clearing Ukrainian land of russian mine debris,” accentuated Denys Shmyhal.
Investments and work in the gas industry, according to the Prime Minister, also open up great opportunities for both Croatian business and the state as a whole.
“Ukraine has the largest underground gas storage facilities in Europe, which serve as a gas safe for the entire continent. This guarantees energy security and protects EU countries from the russian pressure. Croatia can also store its gas received through the LNG terminal on the island of Krk in Ukrainian gas storage facilities. The construction of a natural gas transportation route to Ukraine will be one of the key projects for the entire region,” added Denys Shmyhal.
The defense industry is among the promising sectors. Hence, the previous year alone, the Ukrainian defence sector grew six-fold. It produces a wide range of weapons: armoured vehicles, ammunition and artillery.
“We are constantly looking for the best technological solutions. In the peacetime, the Military Tech sector will be adapted to the needs of the civilian population. In particular, for agriculture and the service sector,” Denys Shmyhal highlighted and added the planning horizon for businesses in agriculture would be extremely wide.
Ukraine already feeds up to 400 million people worldwide, and in the future it can feed up to 600 million.
“The more food Ukraine exports, the less migration pressure there will be on the European Union. We hope that the Croatian business community will help to implement these plans to its undoubted benefit,” emphasized the Head of Government.
An area that Denys Shmyhal urged Croatian businesses to get involved in was recovery.
According to him, there are clear priorities for reconstruction the first of which is energy: “Due to russian drone and missile attacks, we have lost almost 10 GW of generating capacity. We want not only to restore them, but also to build a new power system with a high share of renewable energy sources in generation”.
The second focus voiced by Denys Shmyhal was constriction of housing.
“russia has destroyed more than 10% of Ukraine’s housing stock. Croatia has vast experience in rebuilding. Your country went through this process in the 1990s. We need to attract best practices and encourage the participation of companies that will introduce new solutions, technologies and approaches,” highlighted the Prime Minister. (Government portal)