On July 10, 2023, AmCham Ukraine members met online with the representatives of Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) – Olga Sclovscaia, Regional Head Europe and Central Asia, Marcus Williams, Global Head and Sector Manager – Energy and Extractive Industries, and Annabelle Libeau, Investment Guarantee Officer.
MIGA is a member of the World Bank Group, which was created in 1988 to promote foreign direct investment in developing countries. MIGA supports investments that meet high social and environmental standards by offering investors and lenders political risk insurance (guarantees). Since its inception, MIGA has provided almost USD 70 billion in guarantees in 122 developing countries supporting nearly 1000 projects.
Ukraine became a member of MIGA in 1995, and since then it provided USD 1.6 billion in investments to the country. Before February 24, 2022, the portfolio in Ukraine was USD 44 million, but since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, MIGA provided USD 142 million in new coverage in Ukraine, out of which USD 132 million – for long-term investments. Currently, MIGA provides political risk insurance including war and civil disturbance coverage for foreign investors in Ukraine on case-by-case basis, but providing broad coverage is still challenging. However, as the first step, MIGA created a Support to Ukraine's Reconstruction and Economy Trust Fund (SURE TF) to which Japan already contributed USD 23 million. MIGA expects the SURE TF to grow to USD 300 million with contributions from additional donors.
The participants of the meeting discussed MIGA’s available products for Ukraine, the main project requirements, the detailed algorithm for issuing guarantees, and the first successful cases.
We are grateful to Ms. Sclovscaia, Mr. Williams, and Ms. Libeau for the substantial overview of the opportunities provided by MIGA, and the AmCham Renewables and Banking & Financial Services Committees Co-Chairs and all the participants for their expertise and contribution to this productive discussion.
We will continue working on the introduction of comprehensive war risk insurance for both foreign and domestic investors.