In 2023, Ukraine managed to create real prerequisites for future victory, recovery and post-war development. This was stated by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, summarizing the results of the year, UNN writes.
The year 2023 is coming to an end, which was a difficult period of trials in the fight against a cruel enemy. Despite all the difficulties, we have survived, become stronger, and created real prerequisites for future victory, recovery, and post-war development
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As noted, the primary task in 2023 was to provide the Ukrainian army. According to the Prime Minister, over 11 months, the expenditures of the general fund of the state budget for the security and defense sector amounted to UAH 1.5 trillion. This is 60% of all expenditures.
"Over the past year, we have significantly increased production of our own weapons, equipment, ammunition, and drones. Today, the defense industry employs more than 500 companies and 300,000 people. We now have 200 companies producing drones alone, and new ones appear every month. We continued to develop missile programs and strengthen our air defense," Shmyhal said.
The second key task for Ukraine this year was to maintain macroeconomic stability and support economic recovery.
According to Shmyhal, GDP grew by 5.5% in January-November. According to him, inflation in the country is steadily declining - from more than 26% last year to about 5% in November this year. Over UAH 1 trillion of taxes have been accumulated in the state budget over 11 months. This is 27% more than in the same period last year. The government has also attracted more than USD 42.5 billion in macro-financial assistance from partners.
The third task was to support Ukrainian business.
"Under the program of non-refundable grants eRobota, we have issued UAH 5.5 billion. Under the Affordable Loans 5-7-9 program, almost UAH 90 billion in soft loans were provided to 22,000 businesses. More than UAH 37 billion under the State Guarantees on a Portfolio Basis program. We have reviewed more than a thousand business permits. We have created 15 new industrial parks. Now there are more than 70 of them in total," the Prime Minister said
Another priority for this year was Ukraine's European integration.
Shmyhal reminded us that Ukraine has historic achievements, such as the European Council's decision to start negotiations with Kyiv on our EU membership. They conducted a self-screening of European legislation, analyzing 28,000 acts of EU law. We continued sectoral integration. The process of synchronizing the Ukrainian and European energy systems has been completed.
The Cabinet of Ministers has also launched a program of rapid recovery and reconstruction of the destroyed. Reportedly, the government has allocated about UAH 55 billion from the Armed Aggression Response Fund for various reconstruction projects. In total, more than 37,000 facilities have been restored over the year. Almost 700 schools and kindergartens, more than 400 medical institutions.
"We have launched the eRestoration program. We pay people up to UAH 500,000 to help them repair their war-damaged homes. Recently, we started paying for completely destroyed housing. We have attracted about 500 million euros in contributions from international partners for humanitarian demining," said Shmyhal.
The energy sector has also become one of the main priorities of reconstruction. A total of 1946 MW of generating capacity has been restored. According to the Prime Minister, we have more than €400 million in contributions to the Energy Support Fund of Ukraine, including the announced ones. In 2023, Naftogaz increased its own gas production by 7-8%. Foreign traders pumped about 3 billion cubic meters of natural gas into our storage facilities.
Social sphere. Gas, water and heating tariffs remained unchanged. The Government continued its policy of subsidizing the poor. In March, the second indexation of pensions during the full-scale war was carried out. The average pension increased by 16% this year. Ukraine also continued to provide comprehensive support to IDPs. In addition, a new veterans' policy is being formed in the country.
In 2023, Ukraine launched a number of new digital services in all areas under the Effective Digital State program. 22 new electronic public services on the Diia portal and 14 in the mobile application. The State Anti-Corruption Program for 2023-2025 was approved. It includes 1700 measures in 15 areas. The regulatory framework for the classification of civil service positions was adopted, which is a prerequisite for fair and transparent principles of remuneration of civil servants.