Ukraine expects joint investment fund with US to launch 'within weeks' – Svyrydenko
Photo: Yulia Svyrydenko / Facebook

Subject to the rapid ratification of the subsoil agreement, a new US-Ukraine investment fund could start operating within the coming weeks, Ukrainian Economy Ministry officials told a briefing on the morning of May 8.

Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that after the ratification of the agreement on the creation of the fund, two more agreements will appear: a limited partnership agreement and an agreement defining the principles of the fund's functioning.

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These new agreements will not be intergovernmental (so ratification will no longer be required), but commercial in nature between two legal entities: the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) and the Ukrainian Agency for the Support of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP).

The US side is committed to finalizing all agreements quickly – within weeks, not months.

"We hope that the fund will be fully operational within a few weeks," Svyrydenko said.

The minister said that the creation of the fund does not change the procedure for obtaining licenses for mineral extraction – they will be granted on a competitive basis.

According to her, the agreement under discussion only affects the mechanism for finding financing and selling finished products, not the process of issuing licenses or the activities of extractive companies.

If a company that has received a license needs additional financing for the project, it can apply to the fund. The fund itself will not be directly involved in production, privatization or production sharing agreements.

If the fund refuses to provide financing, the company may turn to other investors, but the conditions for them cannot be significantly better than those offered by the fund.