The number of business leaders who view investments in Ukraine as profitable has nearly doubled since 2022, despite the conflict.
This is evidenced by the European Business Association’s (EBA) study titled “Ukraine’s Investment Attractiveness Index.”
“Despite CEOs of association member companies largely maintaining a negative assessment of the current investment climate in 2023, the number of top managers who believe that new investments in Ukraine will be profitable has nearly doubled,” the EBA statement reads.
Russia’s full-scale military aggression against Ukraine continues to top the list of factors negatively impacting the investment climate, with corruption and a weak judicial system following closely behind.
Among the positive changes, business leaders highly praised Ukraine’s attainment of candidate status for EU membership, deregulation initiatives, and the digitization of government services.
As of today, the majority, namely 84% of surveyed directors of association member companies, consider the investment climate unfavorable. However, among them, the number of respondents who consider it extremely unfavorable has decreased from 37% to 24%. 7% of top managers neutrally assess the current investment climate, and another 9% consider it somewhat favorable.
Despite the war, 32% believe it will be advantageous for new investors to enter Ukraine (compared to 17% of respondents a year ago). At the same time, 57% of companies surveyed, already present in the Ukrainian market, plan to invest in Ukraine during the conflict, while 79% are ready to participate in the reconstruction process.
The assessment of the investment climate dynamics over the past year remains restrained. Almost half of the respondents, 48%, point to a deterioration in the investment climate, 39% believe that significant changes have not occurred, and 13% believe that the investment climate has improved.
Over the next six months, 38% anticipate further deterioration in the situation, while 48% believe that the investment climate will not undergo significant changes. At the same time, 14% of top managers predict an improvement in the situation in the first half of 2024.
