EBRD ready to invest up to EUR 1 bln in Ukraine in 2009

Thomas Mirov, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, said yesterday while on a trip to Ukraine that the EBRD was ready to invest up to EUR 1 bln in Ukraine in 2009 in order to help steer the country out of the economic crisis. Mirov said the EBRD spent EUR 900 mln in Ukraine in 2008. According to Mirov, the support will be directed to stabilize the banking sector, modernize energy assets and other projects. Mirov said that almost EUR 500 mln alone could be used to recapitalize Ukrainian banks, and that negotiations were already underway with a number of local banks. Yesterday Mirov and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko signed a EUR 135 mln agreement to build a new shelter around Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant and realize other projects connected with cleanup from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.