A Visit from Abroad: Serhii Morhunov Met with the Ambassador of Austria to Ukraine Arad Benkö

On June 22, Vinnytsia hosted a meeting between Mayor Serhii Morhunov and a delegation from Austria. Representatives of the Austrian Embassy in Ukraine decided to get to know our city better. Serhii Morhunov presented infrastructure projects and ideas that Vinnytsia plans to implement, and also spoke about the experience of cooperation with foreign partners, including many European countries: Poland, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, Switzerland, and others. In particular, they spoke about the recently approved sister city relations between Vinnytsia and Karlsruhe.

During the meeting, they discussed the post-war reconstruction of Ukraine and ways to bring Ukrainians back home. Serhii Morhunov emphasized that the key to this is to strengthen the economy. In his opinion, this is possible by attracting investment, developing industry and revitalizing both small and medium-sized businesses.

"We have occupied territories, so we need time and resources to liberate our lands and, accordingly, work on reconstruction. The so-called rear regions are the center and west of Ukraine, where people from the eastern regions have moved. Our city, in particular, has received 46 thousand internally displaced persons. Unfortunately, most of the young and active people - about 8 million Ukrainians - have gone abroad, and so now our goal is to bring them back home. We are currently developing various programs to restore and rebuild our country, and the priority is the regions that have already been liberated and those that have suffered the most from rocket attacks. This is right because people need to live somewhere. But there is an understanding that business will not go where there is potential danger. The closer you are to the border with russia or belarus, the more warnings there are," said the mayor.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, our city has adequately resolved the issue of relocation, and 311 business entities from different regions of Ukraine have moved to us. At the same time, the development of industrial parks continues, and the city is introducing new measures to support local businesses. In addition, Serhii Morhunov noted, there are plans to implement many projects that will help revitalize business activity and become a catalyst for the development of social life for all city residents.

"We need to create an ecosystem where people can live and work comfortably. In particular, we have developed ideas for attracting young people to the IT industry and developing startups. Unfortunately, the community budget is not enough to cover our ideas, but creating investment-friendly conditions is one of our priorities. That's why we are looking for donors to implement these plans. Vinnytsia has already established itself as a reliable partner for international investors, including Austrian ones. An enterprise with Austrian investments, Agrana Fruit Ukraine, is successfully operating in our city. In addition, the world-famous HEAD company is building its plant on the territory of the industrial park. Vinnytsia is always open to investors who want to build high value-added enterprises in our community," added the mayor.

Austrian Ambassador to Ukraine Arad Benkö noted that his government has been providing assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.

"At the national level, we are trying to help the country, regions and cities. Since Austria is a federal country, we are trying to meet the needs of people first and foremost. That is why we support decentralization in Ukraine and will do our best to help rebuild your country," said Arad Benkö.