Ukraine must change its economic model towards the development of sectors with high added value. This is, among other things, important for successful integration with the European Union (EU). The head of the Nikolaev Regional Military Administration (OVA) Vitaly Kim wrote about this in a column for the publication “Glavkom”.
“Today, the EU is already a key economic partner of Ukraine. The preferential EU trade regime for Ukrainian goods has already become one of the factors supporting our economy during the war. But for the real transformation of the country, it is critical that such economic predictability is maintained in the long term. Only long-term and understandable rules allow us to attract “long-term” investments and loans into the economy – for production, processing, logistics, industry and technology. This is what creates the conditions not only for economic recovery, but also for increasing the level of its economic complexity. We are talking about development of high value-added sectors and a gradual transition from a commodity model to a modern manufacturing economy,” Kim said.
He is convinced that the reindustrialization of Ukraine is a condition for high-quality European integration.
“For us, it is fundamentally important not to secure Ukraine’s role as a supplier of raw materials for the European market, but to become a full-fledged participant in European production and technological chains. We are talking about the development of processing, mechanical engineering, agricultural technologies, energy, logistics, food industry, equipment production, the military-industrial complex, the modern technology sector, small and medium-sized businesses. It is this kind of economy that creates jobs, keeps people in the country, generates income for communities and gives the state resources for development. And in the conditions post-war competition for people, this will become one of the key factors in the future stability of the state,” the head of the region emphasized.
Without changing the economic model, he is sure, even large-scale international support will not guarantee long-term economic growth for Ukraine.
“In this sense, the reindustrialization of Ukraine is important not only for our internal development. It can become part of the new economic sustainability of Europe – with shorter supply chains, closer production sites, a stronger food base, new logistics routes and powerful defense-industrial potential,” Kim stated.
