KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th October, 2019) Ukraine must stop asking for help from international partners and needs to implement projects on an equal footing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Finance Minister Oksana Markarova said that Ukraine has fulfilled 11 of the 12 conditions necessary to receive the second tranche of macro-financial assistance from the EU and has the chance of securing the payment before the end of the year.
"Our goal is to escape the unpleasant paradigm of being the supplicant of aid and to begin implementing large investment projects already at the same level as our international partners," Zelenskyy said at an investment forum in the Black Sea coastal city of Mariupol.
According to the head of state, there are plenty of projects in the country that may interest foreign investors.
"I'm sure that Ukraine can be an attractive state for investment," Zelenskyy added.
In June 2018, the European Council finally approved the fourth macro-financial assistance program for Ukraine in the amount of 1 billion euros. In December 2018, the European Commission provided Ukraine with the first tranche of macro-financial assistance, which totaled 500 million Euros, in the form of a loan at an interest rate of 1.25 percent per annum with repayment in April 2033.
