BERLIN — It began in the morning, just as the conference was starting: Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman urged German business people not to fear his country’s new 30-day period of martial law. It would affect neither their business nor their employees.
That sentiment would, unsurprisingly, become one of the recurring themes at the third annual German-Ukrainian Business Forum, held in Berlin on Nov. 29.
Organized by the German-Ukrainian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Ukraine’s Economy Ministry, UkraineInvest, and several other partner organizations, the forum brought together prominent representatives of business and government from both countries. The first panel, featuring Groysman and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, testified to the importance that both countries give the bilateral relationship, where trade reached almost $8 billion last year. German businesses have, moreover, invested more than $1.5 billion in Ukraine.
But the forum is also a place where Ukrainian officials and business people urge German business to invest in their country, making the Nov. 28 launch of Ukraine’s amorphous martial law — which sounds frightening, but remains unclear in practice — bad news.
It was likely also particularly awkward for Ukrainian officials attending the forum: most had little role in shaping the martial law proposal, but would now have to reassure German attendees about it.
During a panel on Ukraine’s agricultural sector, Gennadiy Chyzhykov, president of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, assured the audience that “Ukraine is safe.”
“Despite it all, Ukraine is working — and you can see the growth rate,” he said.
At the next panel, on infrastructure and energy efficiency, Deputy Minister for Regional Development Gennady Zubko addressed the Azov Sea crisis more directly.
“We are responding to the Azov situation with restraint,” he said. “Martial law was passed preventatively. It’s important for us, first of all, to calm business.”
“Every challenge is an opportunity,” he added.
Volodymyr Omelyan, Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, told the Kyiv Post that he had also reassured German business people that martial law would not harm their investments.
“Maybe it’s not the best news coming from Ukraine, but they know that it’s safe, that it’s good making money in Ukraine,” he said. There was no reason for fear “nuclear war or something like that.”
German business people understand that the Ukrainian government “takes serious care about the situation in Ukraine to protect Ukrainian and foreign business,” he added.
For their part, Ukrainian officials told the Kyiv Post that they were heartened by Merkel’s statements during the first panel, when she called for 24 Ukrainian sailors, who are currently being tried by Russia in Kremlin-occupied Crimea, to freed without having to make an admission guilt in court.
She also stressed the importance of the Azov Sea for Ukraine, and praised the country’s reform efforts and decided to raise domestic gas prices to qualify for International Monetary Reform aid. Merkel’s presence at the forum was also a clear endorsement of bilateral German-Ukrainian trade and German investment in the Ukrainian economy.
Omelyan expressed satisfaction with Merkel’s statements and said she was “doing a great job.”
Acting Agriculture Minister Maksym Martyniuk admitted her remarks had caught him off guard.
“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting that she was paying so much attention to our situation,” he said. “I would summarize it as total understanding between the German and Ukrainian sides, including about the situation in the Azov Sea.”
