Ukrainian PM, U.S. secretary of treasury meet at IMF, WB spring summit

MOSCOW. April 24 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal has met with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent in Washington, Ukrainian media said.

Shmygal is visiting Washington for a spring summit of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the media said.

"We raised the question of financial assistance for next year. I underlined Ukraine's commitment to the conclusion of an economic partnership agreement between the American and Ukrainian peoples and the establishment of the restoration investment fund. Our negotiating teams continue their active work, as envisaged by the signed memorandum. The negotiating teams will report their progress by April 26 this year," the media quoted Shmygal as saying on a social network.

Consistent with Ukrainian laws, the agreement needs to be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament, he said.

The sides have also agreed to start working on a Ukrainian-U.S. free trade area, Shmygal said.

Shmygal met with World Bank Managing Director of Operations Anna Bjerde, the media said.

"Almost $2 billion have been mobilized thanks to the World Bank's Ukraine Relief, Recovery, Reconstruction and Reform Trust Fund (URTF). The fund is implementing a number of restoration projects for transport infrastructure (RELINC), energy (Re-Power), healthcare (Heal Ukraine), agriculture (ARISE) and housing reconstruction (HOPE). Joint projects have been launched with the World Bank to continue reforms in the fields of finance (SURGE), education (LEARN), healthcare (THRIVE), and the private sector (RISE)," he said.

A new project aimed to restore transport infrastructure (DRIVE) kicked off on April 4.

"The World Bank has mobilized $51 billion for financial assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the crisis. This includes $30.7 billion in non-repayable grants," Shmygal said.

In addition, Shmygal met with U.S. entrepreneurs in Washington on Wednesday to discuss investments in Ukraine, media said, citing the communications department of the Ukrainian government secretariat.

"Investments in Ukraine are investments in the future EU member," Shmygal said, adding that Ukraine had started negotiations on entering into the EU and sought to complete the process within two years, while continuing integration with the EU domestic market and implementing European directives for synchronizing legislation.