At a meeting in Brussels on Wednesday 27 September with a number of journalists, including EUROPE, the newly appointed US Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery, Penny Pritzker, said that the long-term effort to revive the Ukrainian economy had to start “now”, even “in the midst of an ongoing war and fighting”.
Ms Pritzker explained that the aim of the United States was “to help Ukraine survive”, adding that her mandate was, alongside her colleagues and partner countries, to ensure that national institutions and the private sector around the world mobilise to help Ukraine become a “secure, sovereign and prosperous” country.
The previous day, at the meeting of the Steering Committee of the Multi-agency Donor Coordination Platform, discussions had focused in particular on the urgent needs of the Ukrainian government, including energy, housing, transport and infrastructure, according to Ms Pritzker.
In the longer term, the US representative pointed out that Ukraine offers enormous opportunities in agriculture, energy, metals and the extraction of essential minerals in various sectors.
According to the Special Representative, Ukraine’s economic recovery is both a sprint and a marathon. “We need to plan for the long-term sustainable, digital, clean, competitive European Ukraine that’s integrated into global markets. That’s the marathon. But we also need results now. Ukraine’s recovery is essential to motivating people to return to the country, [we need] to jumpstart the revival and give Ukrainians confidence in the hope to come home and start building towards the future. That’s the sprint”, she explained.
Ms Pritzker also said it was necessary to ensure that the procedures and activities that Ukrainians undertake are compliant, not only to enable an economy that will develop internally on its own, but also to attract foreign direct investments, where possible.
To speed up Ukraine’s economic recovery, we need to ensure that it is carried out in line with international best practices, and that means reforms that promote transparency and accountability, said the American, convinced that reform and recovery go hand in hand.
Cooperation with the EU
Interviewed by EUROPE, Ms Pritzker highlighted the cooperation with the EU, “focused on contributions and assistance”, on “making sure that it’s coordinated, dividing up the work that needs to happen so that we’re not somehow splitting projects up that it doesn’t make sense, so that the dollars or the euros that are being spent are being spent most effectively and efficiently”.
The United States is also working with the Ukrainian government, the Europeans and other allies on reforms, including the fight against corruption and money laundering, the reform of state-owned enterprises and the strengthening of administrative capacity.
The US representative pointed out that her country was also helping Ukraine to meet the conditions for EU membership.
She added that Washington is working to support the development of trade routes with Ukraine’s neighbours, Poland and Romania, and that it is working on value chains and investments from countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.
Involving Russia
In addition to the international community’s support for Ukraine’s economic recovery, the US representative said that the frozen Russian assets should be used, adding that the legal work was underway. For her, from an “ethical and moral” point of view, given the destruction caused by the Russians, they should contribute to the recovery of Ukraine.
Ms Pritzker said that the United States had frozen Russian sovereign assets worth $8 billion. Most of these assets are located in the European Union and in Japan.
At the end of June, the European Commission indicated that it was working on the windfall profits generated by the freezing of Russian public assets in the EU so that they could be used to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)