Jadwiga Emilewicz, who is the Polish government's representative for Polish-Ukrainian development cooperation, made the declaration at a seminar on joint efforts in the postwar reconstruction of Ukraine, Polish state news agency reported.
The event was held by the Warsaw Enterprise Institute (WEI), a Polish think tank, in the northwestern Ukrainian city of Lutsk, according to officials.
The Warsaw Enterprise Institute is setting up Ukraine Reconstruction Service Offices in various cities in Ukraine. One such office opened in the western city of Lviv on Monday, the PAP news agency reported.
At the seminar in Lutsk on Tuesday, Emilewicz said: “The reconstruction of Ukraine won’t be taking place only at the level of Warsaw and Kyiv, but also at the regional level.”
She added: “Cooperation with border regions, setting up special economic zones, which means certain privileged conditions for businesses from outside Ukraine, these are the central measures on which we’ll be seeking to work together.”
Emilewicz said that the Volhynia region, of which the city of Lutsk is part, “is a special place in bilateral relations.”
She told the seminar: “On the one hand, there is regional proximity, on the other, difficult history. Importantly, however, regional authorities were very much involved in the events to mark the anniversary of the Volhynia Massacres on July 11, and I believe it matters for Polish entrepreneurs, who are often running their businesses as well as heading associations focused on commemorating history.”
During her visit to Lutsk, Emilewicz laid flowers in the city’s Catholic cathedral, where on July 9 Polish President Andrzej Duda and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute to the victims of the Volhynia Massacres, the PAP news agency reported.
'We’ll need specialists, technology and building materials'
The seminar in Lutsk brought together Ukrainian and Polish businesspeople and officials, according to organisers.
Discussions focused on the potential for Polish-Ukrainian economic cooperation, while Ukrainian government representatives unveiled measures to support entrepreneurs already active, or planning to establish a presence, on the Ukrainian market, the PAP news agency reported.
One of the seminar’s participants, Vitaliy Koval, who heads the Military Administration of Ukraine’s northwestern region of Rivne, said: “I visited the territories liberated from Russian occupation and I saw the scale of destruction. Believe me, Ukraine won’t manage to rebuild them on its own. We’ll need specialists, technology and building materials. I invite Polish companies to not wait and come to us already today.”
Koval told the PAP news agency that Ukraine's Rivne province was “very much interested in cooperation with Poland,” who is already a major trade partner, as "bilateral trade totalled USD 140 million over the past five months.”
Emilewicz was in Ukraine with a Polish business mission, comprising businesspeople, government officials, and representatives of business organisations and NGOs, public broadcaster Polish Radio's IAR news agency reported.
The Polish delegation met with local Ukrainian officials and business leaders, including Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovyi and Lviv Region Governor Maxim Kozytskyi, according to IAR.
Emilewicz told reporters that the Polish Investment and Trade Agency had reopened an office in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and would soon launch another in Lviv.
She also said that, under a new bill currently going through parliament, Polish businesses planning to invest in Ukraine or trade with Ukraine, would soon be entitled to "a pioneering form of export-credit insurance" to further strengthen Polish-Ukrainian ties, the IAR news agency reported.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Tuesday is day 510 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, wnp.pl