On February 15, the RECOVERY CONSTRUCTION FORUM took place in Warsaw as part of the ReBuild Ukraine International Exhibition and Conference – a platform for communication between representatives of the construction industry of European countries to accelerate the recovery of Ukrainian communities affected by the war. EUCON Legal Group became a strategic partner of the event, and attorney, managing partner Yaroslav Romanchuk spoke in the panel “Directions of reconstruction: housing, infrastructure, industry” as a speaker.
The organizers of the Recovery Construction Forum are the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine and Premier Expo, the only international exhibition operator in Ukraine. The event was attended by representatives of state bodies, in particular relevant ministries of Ukraine and Poland, the Ukrainian and European construction industry, legal and insurance companies, and investors.
Starting his speech, Yaroslav Romanchuk emphasized in the panel that the full functioning of the economy is crucial for the life and development of the country. During the war, the economic direction is one of the most important, along with the diplomatic and informational ones. That is why Ukrainian business today, despite all the difficulties and problems, continues to work and pay taxes, organize their activity, develop, and make plans for the future, particularly regarding investments.
According to the speaker, it is important to conduct a constructive dialogue about the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine to optimize all processes and promptly implement the plan.
Mr. Yaroslav noted that the following steps are expected from Western partners to attract direct investment to Ukraine:
- creation of direct investment funds with the participation of the governments of the countries;
- provision of state guarantees and direct loans to companies investing in Ukraine;
- insurance against risks, in particular political and military.
For its part, the Ukrainian government, to simplify processes and provide legal guarantees to partners, has:
- continue the harmonization of Ukrainian legislation with EU legislation;
- complete judicial reform;
- complete the formation of anti-corruption bodies;
- regulate competition by strengthening the independence of the Antimonopoly Committee;
- complete the process of privatization of non-strategic assets.
In addition, the expert singled out the issue of the urgency of tax reform in Ukraine, which is key in attracting investments.
Yaroslav Romanchuk expressed an important opinion that the topic of human capital is currently one of the most painful for both business and Ukraine in general. How to motivate Ukrainians to return, how to socialize demobilized military personnel, how to correctly implement immigration policy to attract new labor force from abroad – all these issues remain debatable and have come before Ukrainian society extremely acutely.
Another no less important opinion among those voiced is the thesis about the abolition of the Economic Code and the normalization of the activities and state registration of public organizations, since the dualism of civil law in Ukraine, which arose due to the presence of two codes that regulate civil relations, is a Soviet rudiment and must be eliminated.
The speaker also raised the issue of types of financing, cases under FIDIC contracts, legal support and provision of comprehensive business services, in particular construction.
Speakers within the panel discussion also became: Domenico Campogrande – General Director of the Federation of the European Construction Industry (FIEC) (moderator); Yevhen Plashchenko – Director General of the Directorate of Spatial Planning of the Territory and Architecture of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine; Semen Kryvonos – Head of the State Inspection of Architecture and Urban Planning of Ukraine; Ellen Hamilton – lead urban specialist in the World Bank’s Global Urban Development, Sustainability and Land practice; Rafal Rybacki – head of the department of credit operations in neighboring countries at the European Investment Bank; Denys Gayovyi – associate director, senior banker of the Department of Sustainable Infrastructure of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development of the EBRD in Ukraine; Olena Voloshyna – head of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Ukraine; Ketil Tonning – head of the working (target) group FIEC-EIC “Ukraine” (Task Force “Ukraine”); Peter Stalens – Policy Specialist, European Commission, DG-Group – Construction, Machinery and Standardization Division; Danylo Molchanov – project manager “Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services (TAPAS)”; Andrzej Rajkevicz – independent member of the Supervisory Board of the “Energy Efficiency Fund” State University; Yevhen Shakotko – Deputy Executive Director of Ukraine Invest; Pavlo Nahornyi – General Director of Technomine Engineering LLC; Tina Kollerup Hansen – Vice President of Danida Sustainable Infrastructure Finance (DSIF) at Investeringsfonden for Udviklingslande (IFU).
