KYIV (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he met with executives of JPMorgan, the largest U.S. lender, and other major international investors on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.
"It is important for us to attract private capital to the reconstruction of Ukraine. We hope that JP Morgan will help attract a large number of global investors and corporations to the Ukrainian economy," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram messaging app.
JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM.N) CEO Jamie Dimon, other senior JPMorgan executives and top management of BlackRock (NYSE:BLK), Bridgewater Associates, the Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG), Blackstone (NYSE:BX), Dell and ArcelorMittal took part in the meeting, Zelenskiy's office said.
The economy ministry said about 100 senior executives joined the meeting, which focused on the need to bring in more private investment to help Ukraine rebuild and modernise its economy and infrastructure devastated by nearly two years of Russia's war.
Ukraine's economy performed better than expected last year with officials estimating gross domestic product growth at about 5% in 2023 after a 28.8% fall in 2022. The government expects GDP growth at 4.6% this year.
During the meeting, Zelenskiy stressed the need to develop and implement financial instruments blending both private and public capital, his office said in a statement.
Yulia Svyrydenko, first deputy prime minister and economy minister, said the government had kept up economic reforms required to improve the investment climate and make doing business easier despite Russia's invasion.
The Kyiv government was also working to expand war insurance for businesses and wanted to strengthen its air defence further, she added.