Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman (L), Neal Walker (C) from UNDP and Japan's ambassador Shigeki Sumi shaking hands after inking a deal on a $5.8 million help package in the office of the Regional Development Ministry on Velyka Zhytomyrska st. in Kyiv.
Russian aggression in the Donbas, a major coal and steel producing region, has cost Ukraine more than 1,000 soldiers killed and up to 10 percent in economic contraction, which is why the country now has to rely on foreign help to improve the situation.
On Nov. 13 Japan's ambassador to Ukraine, Shigeki Sumi, presented a $5.8 million support package aimed at reconstruction of the schools and hospitals in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. It comes along the $1.5 billion project that Japan announced in March to provide Ukraine with money it needs to undergo the reforms focused on cutting the fiscal deficit and fighting the corruption.
"Japan feels that urgent support is needed for those in the area of the Donbas, since the cold winter is setting in," said Sumi during a news conference in Kyiv and also announced plans to visit the two eastern oblasts to eyewitness the situation. The United Nations Development Program will be managing the allocation of the provided financial help, emphasized Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman.
"People recognize the urgency of humanitarian assistance in the east, but also they asked very clearly for investment to get factories going again, to get people working, to restore the infrastructure to allow this region, which has been a traditional economic powerhouse, to continue to contribute to the economic development in Ukraine," said Neal Walker, UNDP representative in Ukraine.
Fixing the heat, power and water supplies in the schools and medical facilities in Ukraine's east is most critical at this time. Around 2,000 public buildings have been damaged, according to a report by the United Nations, while overall 5.2 million people are affected by the war.
More than 930,000 Donbas residents have fled the war-torn region, with 488,000 moving abroad predominantly to Russia. Migrants are being treated in social care centers, which will get part of the Japanese money too.
The United Nations, which is coordinating the flow of money for restoring the Donbas, requested $33.3 million from donors in August, but have managed to collect only $17.1 million so far. However, this is still a tiny fraction of what Ukraine needs. American billionaire George Soros is organizing a donor conference in early 2015 to raise some $14 billion for the resurrection of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Meanwhile, Japan's help to the country under attack by the regime of Vladimir Putin, the Russian president in his third term, includes lending $1.1 billion to the Kyiv City Administration for modernizing the Bortnychi sewage station, the capital's major water cleaning hub that is currently in poor technical condition. It's a 40-year loan with a tiny 0.1 percent interest.
Another $100 million came in July as a 20-year, 0.95 percent loan for "development policy," which is mostly about introducing the austerity measures needed for fighting the budget deficit.
Ambassador Sumi said he's preparing Japan's economic mission to Ukraine to bring Japanese technologies in agriculture and coal-based energy production. "I am sure we will be able to attract Japanese small and medium enterprises, with their unique technology, to Ukrainian production," he commented.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Gordiienko can be reached at gordiienko@kyivpost.com.
Japan provides $6 million to restore Donbas schools and hospitals, $1.5 billion to cut deficit
