On June 15, a meeting of the working group on the development of the “Strategy of Shipbuilding in Ukraine” was held. Members of the Ukrainian Maritime Cluster (hereinafter PU”UMC”) and stakeholders took part.

The initiator of the meeting was Igor Lysytskiy, a member of the Supervisory Board of the PU “UMC”. He informed, that a series of meetings with stakeholders and civil servants had already taken place, during which discussed the need to develop a “Strategy of Shipbuilding of Ukraine”.

A meeting was held with the Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine. An understanding was reached, that at the moment we do not necessarily have to form a state target program that will need to be developed. But they are ready for a specific project.  We can implement it to submit projects and without a target program, counting on donor support. It was proposed to perceive the Ministry of Economy as supporting and in close cooperation with the Ministry of Infrastructure. The request is confirmed by a corresponding letter from the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine. We need an understanding of the cooperation regarding the projects, that have been submitted for review. We also inform you, that a meeting was held with Todeusz Kapowski, head of the Polish Maritime Technology Forum. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between our organizations, – Igor Lysytskiy said.

Regarding the Memorandum signed with Polish colleagues, Serhiy Gurskyi, a member of the Supervisory Board of the PU “UMC”, emphasized that:

Thanks to the signing of this Memorandum. We have the opportunity to borrow the experience of our Polish colleagues in working with European and American grant programs and competitions, – he said.

During the lively discussion, the participants of the event decided on steps and time frames for the effective implementation of the tasks.

We have specific requests regarding objects needs (examples of steamships, boats)  from the Ministry of Infrastructure. We need to react and provide proposals for the distribution between engineering and shipbuilders companies, – said Dmytro Bussov, a member of the Supervisory Board of the PU”UMC”.

In turn, Igor Lysytskiy noted that:

Our meeting is devoted to the fact, that we, as experts in the shipbuilding industry, present our development plan to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, – concluded he

The working group decided to feed the requested information in a short period of time. It starts the long-term preparation process of the updated “Shipbuilding Strategy of Ukraine” as a state target program.

We will remind that in 2021 “Ukroboronprom presented the strategy for the development of the shipbuilding industry until 2030“.

However, there is currently a need to significantly update this document and adapt it to modern realities. The information on existing prospects, assets and calculate the losses incurred by the industry, as a result of russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine, also needs to be updated.