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The Association is the largest industrial and manufacturing organization in the United States, representing 14 thousand companies in every industrial sector.
Among its members are General Electric, Caterpillar, Shell, Pfizer, Microsoft, Intel, Dow.Inc, Rockwell Automation, Steel Manufacturers Association, PepsiCo and many others.
President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Anatolii Kinakh held a working online meeting with the CEO of the Association Jay Timmons.
With forty years of experience in state and national government and politics, Mr. Timmons has established trusted relationships with the Presidential Administration and with leaders of both major parties to advocate for the interests of industrialists.
"We are grateful to the United States for political, economic, informational support of Ukraine in our struggle against the Russian aggressor," Anatolii Kinakh said.
The leader of the business community noted that Ukrainian industrialists are currently closely cooperating with the government on the issues of economic recovery, stabilization of the labor market, modernization of production facilities and solving export problems.
According to him, Ukraine recovery plan presented in Lugano (Switzerland) should be fleshed out with concrete projects and programs, including cooperation between the business of Ukraine and the EU and the United States.
"We understand the need and support the need to rebuild infrastructure, production facilities based on modern principles and standards. There are great opportunities for cooperation with American partners. Actually, this work has been carried out before, now it should be scaled up and systematized," the ULIE President emphasized.
He invited the delegation of the US National Association of Manufacturers to Ukraine when they consider it safe. In the meantime, it is advisable to maintain working online contacts, exchange information on the prospects for investing in SME/projects/large industries.
Basic information in this area has already been prepared by the ULIE - in particular, the proposals of the business union will be considered during the meeting of the Business at OECD Association (the ULIE as observer organization here) with the ambassadors of OECD member countries.
The additional information can be used in the framework of cooperation with American partners.
"We are pleased to establish a partnership with one of the major US business associations. We are confident in the effectiveness of cooperation. In terms of trade turnover, the United States is only on the 8th place among Ukraine's partners, while, for example, Poland is on the 2nd place. Given the potential, we have a task to significantly improve these volumes, including through investment and joint production," Anatolii Kinakh said.
This opinion was fully supported by Mr. Timmons who noted that the Association from the first days of the war called on the State Department to strengthen sanctions against the dictatorship regime of Putin.
"We fully support the policy of allocating weapons and funding to Ukraine to bring the victory over the invaders closer, to liberate all its territories. We are also fully aware of how costly and difficult the process of reconstruction will be, so I, for my part, have already had conversations with leading American companies regarding investments in Ukraine," Jay Timmons said.
According to him, after the end of the war, the NAM delegation will come to Ukraine, talk to the ULIE, the government, visit key industrial facilities in search of opportunities for support and investment.
"You gave me an idea that I should also talk to my European colleagues - heads of national business associations - where we can join efforts to help Ukraine. I will definitely do it," he said.
In his turn, Anatolii Kinakh expressed hope that the U.S. producers will contribute to the fact that the Senate will quickly adopt a decision on the recognition of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, as PACE and a number of EU countries have already done.
The parties agreed to maintain constant communication. The coordinator will be Vice President of the ULIE Denys Krasnikov.
At the request of American partners, the ULIE will send a proposal to the President's Office for an online meeting of V.Zelenskyy with US business and investors.