Alona Shkrum: “We don’t want to be beggars, we want to be partners”
Alona Shkrum is a member of Parliament of Ukraine. She was a speaker at the sixth #UkrainianDialogue that Aspen Institute Kyiv held with Aspen Institute Romania. She spoke about the situation of the Ukrainian economy and its potential.
Damages of Ukraine are estimated to be more than one trillion dollars
Alona stressed that it is a devastating war. The damages of Ukraine are estimated to be more than one trillion dollars. Also some estimate over 2 trillions dollars and the damages are still going on.
— This is something which no Marshall plan, no Brussels plan will ever be able to get in turns of numbers. Obviously, we need investments, obviously we need partnerships. More than 12 millions people relocated. More than 5 millions relocated abroad. 90% of them are women and children. The closest neighbors are doing big work to help our refugees and we are very grateful for that.
Ukraine wants to ensure good investment opportunities and to work for a long period of time
Alona stressed Ukraine’s accession to a single market is one of the ways to support Ukraine’s economy and Ukraine is working for it. In addition, she believes that Ukraine should have accession to the EU first and afterwards complete integration.
— Ukrainians don’t want to be beggars, they want to be partners. Ukraine wants to ensure good investment opportunities and to work for a long period of time: not just for rebuilding Ukraine, but for integrating us completely into the European market.
Also, one of the important steps would be to produce a combination of a Brussels and Marshall Plan together and integrate them with specific details, industries, enterprises and cooperation agreements. Although, Ukrainian plans are optimistic, Ukraine can surprise, and Ukrainian government is ready to work on it:
— I don’t think that we have any other option. We were told in the first three days of war that we would have a government in exile by the end of the first week and that the parliament would soon follow. This did not happen because we did not subject ourselves to fear. Now, I can tell you honestly that we could have been left with just the territories on the right bank of the Dnipro river. This did not happen because we moved step by step, so I am certain that in the current situation, we need to move in the same way.
Alona mentioned that right now Ukraine is suffering something that the world hasn’t seen since World War II. And in this case Ukrainians don’t want anybody to feel it on their territories, and to witness the curfew and the sirens every night. This war needs to be stopped on the territory of Ukraine with the help of the world.
