Rome URC-2025: Ukraine is unveiling robust partnerships and new projects

4th International Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2025) focuses on comprehensive community recovery projects and new opportunities for public-private partnerships

The fourth edition of Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC-2025) will soon be held in Rome, Italy. The forum will be held on July 10-11 and will follow up to a series of high-level political events dedicated to the rapid recovery and long-term reconstruction of Ukraine, which is suffering from external aggression. This time around, the Ukrainian delegation will unveil practical projects that are either being kick-started already, even as the war persists, or are almost ready to be launched. That is to say, Ukraine is not going to request money for the future - "beautiful and unknown" -- but will invite investors to mutually beneficial partnership based on a clear vision and calculations. What is Ukraine expecting from this year’s URC event?

UPDATING INVESTMENT POLICY: SHIFTING FROM “GIVE FOR GRATIS” TO “INVEST AND EARN”

According to the updated RDNA4 (Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment) assessment, conducted by the Ukraine Government, the World Bank, the European Commission, and the UN, Ukraine’s total recovery and reconstruction cost is estimated at $524 billion over the next decade. That amount of money is impossible to raise without the help of private investments from international partners.

After the war ends, a significant number of large-scale technological projects will undoubtedly bring along hundreds of international companies to Ukraine. But that being said, we do not count on their help as charity: they will be able to earn generously by investing in the recovery and reconstruction projects in Ukraine. But it is crucial to have at least part of this resource now as hostilities are still raging in order to sustain the urgent restoration and maintenance needs of critical and public infrastructure, the housing sector, and key industrial facilities that are continually subject to enemy attacks.

In a comment to Ukrinform, Oleksiy Kuleba, Vice Prime Minister for the Recovery and Reconstruction of Ukraine - Minister of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine, highlighted the lack of alternatives to this approach when talking about the specifics of the URC2025 event.

Oleksiy Kuleba, Vice Prime Minister for the Recovery and Reconstruction - Minister of Community and Territorial Development

“We are coming to URC2025 with a clear objective in mind: to show that recovery and reconstruction of Ukraine is a practical process that is continuing even under bombardment attacks. We are showcasing concrete results, robust partnerships, and new projects that investors can join now. Among them are housing development programs for internally displaced persons (IDPs), community infrastructure solutions, digital tools for transparency, and examples of public-private partnerships in the sectors of water supply, transport, and healthcare. Some of the agreements will be consolidated by way of signing financial deals and memorandums right away at the conference,” said Kuleba.

Overall, URC2025 will focus on four thematic dimensions:

1. Business dimension: Mobilizing the private sector to sustain reconstruction and economic growth. Soliciting private capital to undertake large-scale investment is crucial for ensuring economic development and successful reconstruction. Therefore, the talk will be about considering potential risks specifically faced by the Private Sector when engaging in partnerships, especially the risks regarding security, financing and insurance, excessive regulation, and the labor market.

2. Human dimension: Social recovery and human capital for the future of Ukraine. Successful recovery will take mobilizing human resources, strengthening social cohesion and ensuring inclusiveness to unlock the potential of all citizens within the country and beyond, most particularly women and young people. Among the main challenges are the reintegration of IDPs, refugees and veterans into civilian life.

3. Local and regional dimension: Rebuilding communities and regions. Local and regional actors are key stakeholders in rebuilding Ukraine in light of the decentralization reform. The conference focuses on the role of local governments and regional administrations in the recovery and reconstruction effort, ensuring access to financing and ramping up self-government capacity.

4. EU dimension: Accession to the European Union and the successful execution of related reforms. A deeper European integration and the prospect of joining the single market will help bring Ukraine's policies and institutions in line with European standards, which will ensure long-term economic and social progress.

While the previous three iterations of Ukraine Recovery Conference events -- in Lugano, London and Berlin – were more focused more on the needs, then in Rome, the talk will be about what has already been done and where to invest now, with special focus placed on the terms and conditions for the investors who are ready to work in front-line regions.

"We will also showcase the results achieved by the regions where reconstruction is underway. Particularly in the Kyiv Oblast region, more than 23 thousand facilities, ranging from residential housing and road infrastructure to day care centers for children and schools, or over 75% of the destroyed infrastructure has been rebuilt and brought back into operation. It is important to highlight that this has been enabled thanks to cooperation and support from international partners. We are scaling this experience up to encompass front-line regions - Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv among others. Top on our plans is to exhibit pilot projects on the recovery and restoration of these regions, with well-defined and readily available investment solicitation conditions and specific guarantees, including insurance of war risks,” Oleksiy Kuleba emphasized.

At the Rome Conference, several of Ukraine’s top most effective infrastructure projects will be presented. Ukrzaliznytsia, Ukraine’s state-run railway operator, for example, despite continuing threats from bombardment, provides sustainable transportation of passengers and freight, with an average of 92 percent of train arrivals taking place at the scheduled time.

And Ukrainian ports, despite enormous risks involved, ensure the sustainability of agricultural exports by sea routes, having increased exports to near pre-war level. While prior to the full-scale Russian invasion, about 94% of Ukraine’s agricultural exports were going by sea, the current level - despite the war ongoing - is close to the same is it was before the war, standing at 90 percent of the overall market.

“These are examples of systemic resilience and our capacity, which is based on professional work, coordination, technical training, and support from international partners. We are placing special focus on modern engineering and digital solutions - from modular building technology to digitalized management services. We are unveiling several projects that demonstrate a new approach to space arrangement, architecture, energy, and mobility in the context of post-war reconstruction,” said Oleksiy Kuleba.

INVESTMENT IN COMMUNITIES: THE NEED FOR COMPREHENSIVE RENOVATION OF PUBLIC AND INDUSTRIAL POTENTIAL

This year’s iteration of Ukraine Recovery Conference will serve as a key international platform focused on Ukraine’s recovery and modernization, aiming to solicit investment in Ukrainian regions and specific communities. Overall, 283 communities applied to attend the forum, proposing promising recovery, modernization, and development projects.

The applications were evaluated according to several criteria, including particularly recommendations from regional government authorities, local self-government associations, and international partners. When compiling the final list, the geographical quota was also factored in: 40% of communities will represent frontline regions, 30% central regions and 30 percent western regions. This approach will help ensure a balanced representation of territories that have different conditions in terms of recovery cost and time.

At this year’s event, the emphasis will be on the presentation of local public investment projects that are well prepared for execution and implementation, generated based on the current Community Development Strategies and the investment profile contained in the digital ecosystem DREAM.

Municipal community of Trostyanets, Sumy Oblast region, will be among those who will present already completed post-occupation recovery projects and new projects that might appeal to potential investors.

As the city mayor Yuriy Bova told Ukrinform, the community was under occupation for 31 days - from February 24 to March 26, 2022. During that time, 1,200 facilities sustained destruction or damage. The value of material damage inflicted on the community reached near $120 million. In addition to approximately nine hundred residential buildings (private houses and apartment buildings), a multiplicity of public institutions, among them kindergartens, schools, and administrative buildings sustained severe damage.

Yuri Bova, Trostyanets city mayor

"The municipal hospital in Trostyanets suffered the most in the aftermath of Russian shellfire from tanks, artillery, mortars... 480 broken windows, destroyed equipment, all ambulance vehicles damaged. In addition to shelling attacks, the occupiers looted most public institutions: they took away everything they could steal, and shattered or destroyed by shooting everything they could not take away. In fact, we did not have a single bus, a single special-purpose vehicle, a single municipal transport vehicle left undamaged," recalls Bova.

Beside this, the enemy has over the past three years repeatedly attacked the deoccupied community with missiles and UAVs. Particularly in 2024, a Russian missile exploded near the hospital to smash more than 250 windows and damage some of the special-purpose vehicles donated to the community as humanitarian aid. And in one of the community’s rural settlements, buildings of the Starostyn District administration, a cultural center, and a library were reduced to ruins, and a school, residential and commercial buildings sustained severe damage in the aftermath of Russian attacks. This year so far, the enemy has launched several attacks targeting industrial and agricultural infrastructures.

According to the mayor, a thorough inventory of damaged and destroyed property and prioritization of restoration needs facilitated better and faster restoration of private and community properties.

“We compiled a list for each sector, a kind of checklist of what we need for rebuilding schools, kindergartens, the hospital, and the housing sector. And this made it possible to talk not in abstract terms about some kind of help, but about specifics: how many ambulances, buses, equipment and tools for community-run enterprises, office equipment, furniture, etc. the community requires. This helped us to “reach out” to friends and partners both in Ukraine and abroad faster,” Yuriy Bova said in comment.

On a simultaneous track, the community was working, developing design and cost documentation required for projects on the restoration and modernization of damaged and destroyed facilities. Ukraine’s Recovery and Reconstruction Agency identified Trostyanets as a pilot city for comprehensive recovery and reconstruction, with a focus on the city hospital destroyed by enemy attacks. The inpatient unit and the outpatient clinic have already been brought back into operation, rebuilt according to modern standards and the rebuild-beyond-its-original-state principle, and another medical building is in the process of refurbishment and modernization. Furthermore, two residential buildings have been restored as part of the program.

In Trostyanets, a master plan for community restoration and development has been developed. Mr. Bova claims this to be a modern, state-of-the-art document drawn up in line with European standards. And therefore, the measures included in this plan will be understandable to international partners, and the included projects are likely to be appealing to potential investors.

“We are inviting representatives of foreign countries to participate in the restoration of our city. We will come to Italy bringing along projects on the recovery and reconstruction of schools and public facilities. There are clear specific projects for the energy sector, the food industry, and building materials sector. On top of that, there is a fascinating, comprehensive construction program to build a new neighborhood. A very beautiful, convenient land plot, a major project that will provide housing for up to 13 thousand residents, will build a school and a day care center for children among other facilities. We are as well looking for partners to continue a restoration project for conceptual municipal facilities (the aforementioned hospital needs to be further developed and expanded). Businesses will perhaps be interested to build a hydrotherapy center as part of the hospital expansion program aimed at rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. This project could be of interest in terms of public-private partnership,” Yuri Bova says.

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP: CLEAR RULES AND PREFERENCES FOR PARTICIPANTS

The Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine is also highlighting the significance of a comprehensive approach to the restoration and maximum effective use of the benefits inherent in public-private partnership (PPP).

“Our strategy is not to just restore what has been destroyed, but to create a high-quality new modern infrastructure that is safe, energy-efficient, and convenient for people. For example, there is no way right now to rebuild the destroyed Kakhovka HPP. Instead, we are building a new water supply system that will provide hundreds of thousands of people with water. It is faster, safer, and cheaper,” Deputy Minister Maryna Denysiuk explains in a comment to Ukrinform.

Attracting financial resources available to Ukraine, supplemented with private investment will enable recovery and reconstruction programs to be executed and implemented within the shortest time possible. Five key priorities remain in place, encompassing the energy sector (modernization and decentralization of generation, shoring up system resilience), the housing sector (compensation program for destroyed and damaged real estate and construction of new, including municipal housing), critical and public infrastructure (repair of roads, bridges, emphasis on border infrastructure, restoration and construction of hospitals, schools, restoration of water supply and wastewater treatment networks), humanitarian mine action and support for the economy.

Maryna Denysiuk, deputy Minister of Community and Territorial Development

“The Government is currently working implementing a public investment management reform. This is a major comprehensive reform program involving a great multiplicity of stakeholders. Here we are talking about the local, regional, and national levels. The reform is about soliciting investment -- in a reasonable, transparent, and effective way – in recovery projects. Each project undergoes an official analysis, contains a strategic rationale, and is public. From now on, only clear and transparent procedures with clear evaluation and prioritization criteria will be used,” Ms. Denysiuk says.

All project data, according to Ms. Denisyuk, is transparent and available in the DREAM system. Each investor can see the project, learn about its initiators and implementation milestones.

“Communities are getting more opportunities to promote their projects and raise funding. We are moving conceptually from the “requirement” to the “project.” Digital tools accelerate and simplify recovery, make it transparent and accountable,” the deputy minister assures.

In this context, Ms. Denysiuk mentioned the recently passed Law No. 7508, which expands the opportunities for using the public-private partnership mechanism in the recovery process and which fully complies with European legislation.

Maryna Denisyuk explains:

“The document allows for more economical and effective use of government resources. After all, these resources, like grant aid, are limited. Ukraine must move toward a model where projects are implemented primarily at the expense of commercial banks, international financial organizations, public-private partnership instruments, and only lastly at the expense of the government. A community will now be able to execute projects bypassing expensive feasibility studies; a conceptual note will suffice. This applies to minor projects, such as the reconstruction of hospitals, kindergartens, and the construction of affordable housing.”

The new law, she claims, will allow public-private partnership tools to be used in the sectors that were previously closed to this opportunity, particularly healthcare, transport, housing construction, education, or digital communications.

"We have removed bureaucratic legal barriers in over 30 sectors. The law enables the use of a hybrid PPP model that combines private money with resources from international financial organizations. During martial law and for another seven years after it, the Cabinet of Ministers will be able to use a simplified procedure for launching recovery and reconstruction projects. Investment security safeguards, legislative sustainability, protection of investors in the event of project cost change or contract termination will be introduced. This is what lays the foundation of trust for the government and is key to private investment solicitation in recovery and reconstruction programs," Maryna Denysiuk comments.

A number of bilateral memorandums of understanding on cooperation between Ukrainian and Italian communities within the "Twinning Across Borders" initiative will be expectedly signed at URC2025. There is interest in signing bilateral memoranda from the aforementioned city of Trostianets, as well as the cities of Slavutych, Truskavets, Stary Sambor, Romny and Bara.

“The Italian side is working on the final wording of the agreements,” the National Congress of Ukrainian Associations in Italy told Ukrinform.

As regards the strategic results of the conference, the Ukrainian delegation is hopeful to stir up investors’ “appetite” for investments in our country and to generate sustained interest in comprehensive Ukraine recovery projects. After all, we are talking about tens, and, potentially, hundreds of billions, which will generate huge business return on investments.

Vladyslav Obukh, Kyiv