Ukraine has chance to get quality investors, says ex-minister on minerals deal

This was stated by Volodymyr Omelyan, politician and former Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, live on air of the Espreso TV channel.

"We have a simple situation. If we want it, this agreement will be a great success. This is a big success, and we should thank the Ukrainian negotiation team that managed to achieve it. Against the backdrop of what Zelenskyy did by disrupting the signing of a much better deal and causing a scandal in the Oval Office, our chances of success were very low," he believes.

According to Omelyan, Ukraine finally has a chance to get modern American technologies for the development of our natural resources.

"They are extremely needed. We can endlessly talk about uranium, Ukrainian gold, lithium, titanium, and other rare-earth metals. All of this requires modern approaches because, in many cases, the concentration of certain minerals in Ukrainian ores is very low. Processing costs a fortune if we use standard Soviet technologies. This is our problem, and it explains why we don't have grand-scale developments. If we prepare the proper project documentation with the Americans, we have a chance to attract good investors and quality projects that will benefit both sides – Ukraine and the USA," added Omelyan.

He believes Ukraine should attract direct foreign investment.

"I always come from the simple truth that it's much better for us to have transparent direct foreign investments than a few of our oligarchs and billionaires who will hold licenses in their pockets, generate profits abroad, and tell us that these deposits are worthless, nothing is being mined, no one is interested. We’ve been through this story, and we need to draw the right conclusions – to be a high-tech nation, we need to attract direct investments. And this deal will also face a problem – we need to convince not the U.S. government, but large private companies about investments in Ukraine," concluded the ex-minister.

• On April 30, Ukraine and the United States signed an agreement to create an Investment Fund for Ukraine's reconstruction.

• On May 6, the Verkhovna Rada's Foreign Policy Committee supported the ratification of the agreement with the U.S. on cooperation in the field of natural resources.

• On May 8, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the ratification of the agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. on natural resources. 

• On May 12, Zelenskyy signed the law ratifying the agreement on natural resources with the U.S.