Stockholm, 24 July 2023
On 21 June, Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell attended an annual conference on Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction. The discussions focused on how to facilitate the business sector’s engagement in reconstruction efforts.
The conference, which was opened by UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (who took part online), centred around the role of the private sector in Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction. In Sweden’s national address, Mr Forssell highlighted the country’s long-term financial and political support to Ukraine, and the key role of the private sector.
“The Government’s support to Ukraine is long-term and broad-based. But to build a strong Ukraine, investment by private actors is also needed – something we talked about extensively at our conference on Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction in Stockholm on 8 June. The role of the business sector is crucial to Ukraine’s recovery, and we are seeing that many companies want to get involved,” says Mr Forssell.
New facility for long-term support to Ukraine
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen presented a new facility for financial support from the EU to Ukraine. Ukraine will receive long-term support through grants and concessional loans until 2027, and the new facility is planned to have a budget of up to EUR 50 billion. According to Ms von der Leyen, a proposal for how frozen Russian assets can be used to benefit Ukraine will soon be presented. Ms von der Leyen also praised Ukraine’s ongoing reform efforts for closer ties with the EU and stressed her conviction that Ukraine will one day be an EU Member State.
Swedish cooperation with European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
The conference was well connected to the discussions held at the conference of experts on Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction in Stockholm on 8 June, which particularly focused on business sector engagement.
At the London conference, CEO of Swedfund Maria Håkansson signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) concerning investment in Ukraine. The aim is to improve coordination of investments in the country, but also to enable risk-sharing between the bilateral development financiers and the EBRD. The cooperation includes a total of 19 international partners who are thereby able to participate in investments within the framework of the MoU.
US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken also took part in the conference, as did several British ministers and foreign ministers from other EU countries, Norway and Türkiye.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Sweden has provided around SEK 22 billion in support to Ukraine.
Source – Swedish Government