The 6th annual Ukrainian Investment Summit took place on 17th – 19th May 2010 at the Marriott Grosvenor Square Hotel in London and reaffirmed its status as the leading investment conference for Ukraine worldwide.
An impressive number of 400 attendees from 20 countries took part in the 3 days of the Summit. They heard from a 65-strong speaker panel, which was headed by:
Iryna Akimova, 1st Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine. Ms Akimova impressed attendees with her clear vision of what is required to stimulate the Ukrainian economy as it pulls out of the downturn and also with her willingness to tackle the major stumbling blocks that investors stated are holding back larger-scale, meaningful investments in Ukraine.
Other key officials who joined Ms Akimova, included:
• Mykyta Konstantinov, Deputy Minister of Fuel & Energy
• Oleksandr Riabchenko, Head, State Property Fund
• Victor Maiko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Volodymyr Ignashchenko, First Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection
• Dmytro Tevelev, Head, State Securities & Stock Market Commission
• Anatoliy Balyuk, Executive Director, Currency Regulation, National Bank of Ukraine
• Teimour Bagirov, Head of Economic Advisory Council, Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine
Just some of the Summit highlights this year included:
- An international panel of renowned economists and financiers responding to Ms Akimova’s presentation, including: Max Alier of the IMF, John Studzinski of Blackstone, Tim Ash of RBS, Christopher Granville of Trusted Sources and Anders Aslund;
- A no-holds-barred Roundtable on the Future of the Banking Industry in Ukraine, featuring the Chairmen of 7 leading banks in Ukraine, namely Credit Agricole, ING, National Credit Bank, OTP, Raiffeisen Bank Aval, Ukrsibbank, Ukrsotsbank and their views on how to restart corporate lending;
- An Institutional Investors Panel debated where the opportunities are in Ukraine. The panel featured Abris Capital, East Capital, IFC and Third Millennium Russia Fund, with a cumulative total of hundreds of millions of dollars invested in Ukraine;
- State Property Fund Chief Riabchenko announcing that a large-scale privatision programme will be launched, with many of the most attractive state assets, that have been discussed for years, included in the list. Deputy Energy Minister Konstantinov backed this up with his announcement of the investment opportunities in the energy sector;
- A Spotlight on M&A, coordinated by Eavex Capital and featuring the 2 major company heads / shareholders – Vadim Mogyla of Sintal Agriculture and Ruslan Demchak of Ukrainian Business Group;
- The launch of the People First Foundation by its founder and President, Ivan Matieshin;
- Updates by the National Agency for Euro-2012 and the State Road Agency Ukravtodor on preparations for the Euro-2012 championship and infrastructure in general;
- A CEO Leadership Panel, chaired by Jorge Zukoski of the AmCham, where 4 top CEOs in Ukraine debated their role post-crisis and beyond. They were Volodymyr Kolodyuk of Unitrade, Vitaliy Skotsyk of Landkom, George Logush of Kraft and Oleg Logvinov of Konti.
Do revisit the site in the days to come for a selection of the extensive press coverage and a photo gallery of key moments of the Summit.
A big thank you is extended to all speakers, sponsors and attendees of the Summit. Particular thanks go to Ambassadors Turner and Kharchenko, especially Ambassador Kharchenko’s Trade & Economics team at the Embassy in London.
The new timing of mid-May was well received by all attendees and preparations are already underway for the 7th annual Summit in London in May 2011.
