The US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund may finance its first three projects by the end of the year, according to Yehor Perelyhin, Deputy Minister of Economy and Environment.
"We are trying to accelerate this process and reach the first projects financed by the Fund by the end of the year. These could be projects in energy, subsoil use, and other very interesting sectors," he said during Mining Day hosted by the European Business Association (EBA) in Kyiv on Thursday.
"We promised at least three projects (financed by the Reconstruction Fund) by the end of the year and are on track to fulfill this promise," Perelyin noted.
He specified that to date, approximately 300 project applications have been submitted to the Fund, around 60% of which are in the energy sector. However, according to him, many of these projects are underdeveloped and lack proper preparation.
"Subsoil development projects require careful examination; this does not happen in a month or two," Perelygin added, noting that it takes approximately 11 months for projects to reach the financing stage.
He said that "significant expertise from the global market" has been engaged to speed up the preparation and processing of these projects.
