How the Ukreximbank Platform will help communities in building and restoring infrastructure

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After more than a year of full-scale invasion, Ukrainian business has been on the defensive on Ukraine’s economic front. Enterprises and business have suffered the most extensive damage since the country’s independence due to hostilities.

The total amount of direct documented damage caused to the infrastructure of Ukraine due to the full-scale invasion of Russia, according to the results of June of this year estimated at $150.5 billion, but every day the damage due to constant shelling and missile strikes only increases. Today, Ukraine’s needs for reconstruction and recovery are estimated at $411 billion, unprecedented in the world.

Development and restoration of Ukraine’s infrastructure is an issue that needs to be resolved now. The success of the reconstruction depends not only on international aid and investment, but also on how the communities will organize themselves and determine priorities.

The needs of the municipal and communal sector

Today, the needs of the municipal utility sector are very great. In connection with the internal movement of the population and the relocation of businesses, there is an increase in the load on the communal enterprises of Central and Western Ukraine.

There remains the general problem of low energy efficiency of equipment used at critical infrastructure enterprises. In more affected regions, the question of their recovery is critical.

A separate challenge is the need to update transport infrastructure and special utility equipment. This is due to the fact that a large amount of equipment was transferred to the needs of the Armed Forces and TRO or was destroyed.

Today, for the rapid implementation of large-scale restoration and reconstruction projects, cities and communities do not need to wait for cheap foreign loans or large grants, but to attract external financing from banks.

However, cooperation with banks is hindered by outdated stereotypes, lack of knowledge and experience on the part of community managers.

The platform of Ukreximbank is a task to teach

Ukreximbank, as the largest corporate investment bank of Ukraine, has already implemented a number of successful projects for financing cities during the war.

Available programs and types of active operations for cities and communal enterprises in Ukreximbank are able to perform tasks of any complexity.

Currently, the bank’s clients who use lending services are a number of Ukrainian communities – Kyiv City Council, Poltava, Odesa, Lviv, Mukachiv, Uzhgorod, Ivano-Frankivsk and others.

It is about the realization of loan funds under the program “Available loans 5-7-9 %” and “Available financial leasing 5-7-9 %” projects of EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) and USAID (US Agency for International Development), which offers to issue municipal bonds to cities for the development of their investment projects.

The Bank recently held a round table in Lviv – “Cities for the People. Opportunities for Financing the Municipal Sector in Wartime and Reconstruction”.

The event was the first of a series of public discussions and practical meetings that the Bank plans to organize for mayors and leaders of territorial communities.

In the future, such public discussions should become an educational platform for mayors of cities and directors of communal enterprises in order to popularize the financial instruments that are available on the Ukrainian financial market today.

In addition, the Bank plans to develop training platforms for financial and project teams of communities (on the basis of Ukreximbank with the involvement of representatives of the Ministry of Finance, MFIs, etc.) so that specialists on the ground clearly understand the algorithms of financial products.

Instead of conclusions

Reconstruction will not be an easy process, it will require an enormous amount of human and financial resources, which will affect every sphere of social life. Because the restoration of the country is not only the reconstruction of bridges, factories, schools and hospitals.

This is primarily a question of the return of millions of Ukrainians from abroad, and therefore – the problem of creating jobs, ensuring the full functioning of entire industries and even individual regions of the country that will live in new post-war conditions.

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