Corporate social responsibility
That’s echoed by initiatives from individual companies. Uber, for instance, announced it was offering free rides to the Polish border to help refugees fleeing the violence. L’Oréal, alongside a €2.7m donation in humanitarian aid, has convoyed more than 350 trucks of essential items from Poland to Ukraine through its work with the UNHCR. Airbnb, for its part, proclaimed it would provide free, short- term housing for Ukrainian refugees. That’s shadowed by a panoply of other examples, with tech firms unsurprisingly prominent. When Russia first invaded Ukraine, Microsoft aided the Ukrainian government in moving its in-country servers to the cloud and donated its cloud services to the country’s government free of charge. KredoBank, one of the country’s leading financial institutions, also uses several Microsoft cloud models to protect against cyberattacks. Apart from these general initiatives, Williams explains that companies have equally supported their Ukrainian employees. As he puts it: “One of the main things the private sector has done is humanitarian assistance – and also taking care of their employees and their employee’s families.”
$140bn
The amount the Ukrainian private sector could contribute to the country’s reconstruction over the next decade.
IFC 35% EBRD 18
The European Bank for Reconstruction’s stake in M10 Lviv Industrial Park in western Ukraine, which will create warehouse and manufacturing spaces and provide access to essential services and goods.
Building back better Clearly, immediate support can do much to alleviate the short-term suffering of the Ukrainian people. But what about when the fighting truly stops? “One of the great things Ukraine’s got going forward,” says Williams, “is business wants to be there, business wants to stay there, and they’re still creating thousands of jobs for Ukrainians, which is desperately needed.” Other insiders agree. “Together we can do much more for Ukraine and its private sector,” explained Makhtar Diop, the IFC’s managing director, in a recent interview. “Ukraine’s reconstruction will cost far more than the government and donors can muster alone. The private sector can play a key role in this. Ukrainian businesses are also desperately short of financing and need immediate help to ensure the economy stays afloat.” What companies need now, Williams continues, is more support from the Ukrainian government for a friendlier business environment. Due to heavy interference from officials, as well as high taxes and corruption, the private sector is struggling, which hinders investment for job creation and wealth. The ongoing violence in the east of the country hardly helps either, even as western cities like Lviv are intermittently hit by Russian missile strikes. All the while, some brave firms have decided to stick it out in Ukraine. After briefly closing its Velyka Dymerka plant in Kyiv at the start of the war, Coca-Cola returned in May 2022, and aims to reach pre-war production and sales volumes by the end of 2023. McDonald’s and KFC
are also continuing to operate in the country, with McDonald’s providing food for Ukrainians during periods of martial law. Not to be outdone, KFC opened its kitchens to provide food for military personnel, and has committed to training and hiring 300 Ukrainian women refugees over the next three years. With this in mind, and especially given how fragile the Ukrainian economy is generally, Williams suggests that, for the moment, the Kyiv government would do well to cultivate the corporate relationships it already has. “We keep telling the government of Ukraine
‘don’t run around the world looking for new companies, take care of the ones that are there, give them a better business environment, cut back on bureaucracy and all the Soviet laws that are still restricting business’,” he says.
Of course, stopping the slaughter is paramount to Ukraine’s recovery in the immediate term. But while executives wait for that to happen, Williams calls on international finance organisations to introduce “creative ways” to fund investment. In fact, there are signs this is happening already. In June, the World Bank unveiled a $1.5bn loan to the country, much of which will be spent reforming energy and financial markets.
Peace dividend? With the private sector rallying behind Ukraine, could they be doing more? Williams, for his part, is happy with the progress so far. “We’re very pleased,” he says, “about what they’re doing now.” Even so, both the Ukrainian government and the businesses it works with are looking for new ways to transport goods out of the country to the private sector. As he puts it: “You’ve got to find ways with water transportation, trucks, railroads, to move goods – or that will really shut down Ukraine.” Fortunately, there are signs that here, too, change is rumbling down the road. For example, Oakland International is a logistics firm that’s set up a warehouse in neighbouring Moldova to help facilitate the flow of goods in and out of Ukraine. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, for its part, has committed to a 35% stake in the M10 Lviv Industrial Park project in western Ukraine, which will create warehouse and manufacturing spaces to expand the country’s access to essential goods. “In order to finance the future with all that’s happened,” Williams summarises, “the private business is very essential to moving forward. It’s critical that they want to stay in Ukraine, that they want to support Ukraine. But there’s no question that they’re going to need help.” Considering the battering the country’s faced over the past few years, it’s hard to disagree. ●
Chief Executive Officer /
www.ns-businesshub.com
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