Dear co-presidents of the URC2023,
Dear colleagues,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Let me first of all congratulate the co-organisers Ukraine and Germany for this 3rd edition of the URC Conference here in Berlin.

I’m particularly glad to continue the work we started together in Lugano (Switzerland) two years ago, in order to give brighter prospects to the people of Ukraine.

I would like to briefly outline a few selected Swiss commitments:

First: The private sector plays a key role in the reconstruction process.

Switzerland is promoting sustainable framework conditions and ensuring that SMEs can function and remain competitive.

In cooperation with the EBRD, we are supporting a new mechanism to protect private investments against war risks.

Switzerland is also pleased to join the SME and Skills alliances to be launched at the URC.

Second: As the past two years have shown, digital transformation is another key component of Ukraine's resilience and recovery.

When Switzerland began supporting Ukraine's digital transformation in 2015, we sensed that this would be a promising sector. But no one expected this sector to be so crucial.

That's why I'm pleased to announce that Switzerland is not only going to continue supporting Ukraine's digital transformation, but also to expand it.

We will provide an additional €60 million over the next four years for our E-Governance for Accountability and Participation (EGAP) project to promote transparency, accountability and democratic participation through digitisation.

Third: with the Lugano Principles, Switzerland and Ukraine have linked Ukraine's recovery to its reform processes. In the same line we will organize the 2nd humanitarian demining conference in Lausanne next October.

Switzerland is now participating in the IMF's Ukraine Capacity Development Fund. This fund will support the implementation of governance and anti-corruption reforms in line with EU requirements.

And that is of upmost importance given our longterm commitment to Ukraine that started in 1991 and within the prospect of an investment of at least 5 billion CHF in the next 12 years.

And finally, Excellencies, at the request of President Zelensky, Switzerland will host the first High-Level Conference for Peace in Ukraine on 15 and 16 June - that is, next weekend.

A few months after the war began, we dared to talk about rebuilding. Today we must have the courage to build peace.

However different they may be, we need to combine our strengths, our ideas and our worldviews.

So let us climb to the top of a Swiss mountain - to find common ground, build trust and start building peace.

I count on the high-level participation of your country.
Thank you.

Ukraine Recovery Conference 2024 (en)