This week, business and political leaders from around the world gathered for the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, organized and hosted by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action. The first day of the conference concluded with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between export credit agencies (ECAs) pledging additional cooperation for the support of Ukraine, and focusing on preparing the foundation for trade and investment to advance the country’s reconstruction.
Export Development Canada (EDC) was among 13 initial signatories, which also included Atradius Dutch State Business (Netherlands), EGAP (Czech Republic), EKN (Sweden), Euler Hermes (Germany), EIFO (Denmark), Finnvera (Finland), KUKE (Poland), PricewaterhouseCoopers (Germany), NEXI (Japan), SACE (Italy), UKEF (UK) and USEXIM (USA). These ECAs agreed to work in cooperation to strengthen their export credit and foreign direct investment support for Ukraine and to establish an exchange format for sharing experiences and risks.
“At EDC, we stand ready to support Ukraine and the Canadian companies that are supplying the country with the goods and services the country needs, not only during this difficult time but also as the country rebuilds. It was very encouraging to be part of this international effort to support our Ukrainian colleagues. The MOU is an important expression of partnership and collaboration, and a commitment to work in a united fashion to support Ukraine with the export and investment support it needs in its future reconstruction efforts,” said Todd Winterhalt, Senior Vice-President, International Markets and Head of Communications and Public Affairs, EDC.
The operational focus of the MOU centres on formalizing and strengthening information sharing among the respective signatories. The goal is to develop practical solutions to address the challenges of promoting exports to and investments in Ukraine. The signatories expect to leverage the joint commitment to exchange best practices on how to best adapt their financing and insurance solutions and conduct due diligence in identified risk-sharing opportunities as a means to strengthen support to Ukraine.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, EDC has worked closely with the Government of Canada, business associations, as well as like-minded ECAs and other global partners to support Canada’s efforts to continue the flow of trade from Canada into Ukraine. EDC is also an active contributor to the G7 ECA Ukraine Working Group and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Export Credit Group where ECAs continue to share intelligence and identify collaboration opportunities.
EDC has established resources for Canadian companies to learn about exporting to Ukraine and to keep apprised of developments. These include a dedicated webpage on Ukraine and an email address where companies can send questions related to the market: EDCUkraine@edc.ca.
