World Bank approves $3.39 billion for Ukraine: Details revealed
Photo: The World Bank has approved a new $3.39 billion support program for Ukraine (Getty Images)
The World Bank has approved a new $3.39 billion support program for Ukraine. The funding will help attract private investment, support businesses, create jobs, and advance economic reforms.
Key points:
- New Funding: The World Bank has approved a $3.39 billion program for Ukraine.
- How the funds will be used: supporting the private sector, creating jobs, and implementing economic reforms.
- Main sources: a World Bank loan, a F.O.R.T.I.S. grant, and guarantees from the United Kingdom.
- Reform priorities: attracting investment, addressing the skills shortage, and integrating with the EU market.
- Next step: This is the first of two planned development policy programs.
The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved the First Ukraine Jobs and Private Sector Growth Development Policy Operation (DPO). Its main objective is to support government reforms aimed at developing the private sector, attracting investment, and creating new jobs.
This is the first of two planned operations under the Development Policy Operation.
Where funds will come from
The total financing package amounts to $3.39 billion.
The package includes:
- $1.04 billion—a World Bank loan
- $540 million in credit enhancement from the ADVANCE Ukraine Fund, supported by the Government of Japan
- $500 million in guarantees from the UK government
- $2.35 billion in grants from the F.O.R.T.I.S. Fund.
The World Bank emphasizes that the program is part of international support for Ukraine, which helps cover the country’s budgetary needs during the war.
What reforms program will support
The financing is intended to support reforms in three key areas.
The first is stimulating private investment. This involves improving legislation on public-private partnerships, developing financial instruments for small and medium-sized businesses, and continuing privatization.
The second is addressing the labor shortage. The program calls for modernizing housing policy, supporting veteran-owned businesses, expanding employment opportunities for women, and narrowing the gap between employers’ needs and workers’ skills.
The third is deepening integration with the European Union market. Steps are planned to increase transparency in state support for the agricultural sector, integrate the Ukrainian electricity market into the European one, and harmonize environmental legislation.
What World Bank says
Bob Saum, the World Bank’s Regional Director for Eastern Europe, notes that Ukraine continues to implement reforms even amid a full-scale war.
According to him, the country is creating conditions to attract private capital, develop markets and institutions, and is steadily progressing toward European Union membership.
The World Bank adds that over the past four years, mobilized international support has enabled the Ukrainian government to provide critical public services to more than 20 million Ukrainians, particularly in the areas of healthcare, education, energy, housing policy, agriculture, and support for small and medium-sized businesses.
