Ukraine has completely lost the Russian market, Ukrainian opposition politician claims.
“Exports to the European Union (from Ukraine – ed.) – $18 billion, and our citizens working abroad, only officially transferred $ 12 billion to their homeland in 2020. We have become a country-exporter of labor resources, not goods that we produce. People come and transfer money to us,” said the co-chairman of the Opposition Platform – For Life (OPLZ) faction in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Yuriy Boyko.
“This is a very bad trend, evidence of the fall of the Ukrainian industry,” Boyko stressed.
The volume of remittances from Ukrainians working abroad is several times higher than the volume of foreign direct investment in Ukraine and amounts to 1/4 of the export volume.
In particular, in 2018-2020, Ukrainians transferred to their homeland an average of $11.6 billion a year, and foreign direct investment amounted to $ 3.2 billion a year, Boyko explained.
The export of raw materials and labor is a sign of a poor country. “It is necessary to increase the attraction of foreign direct investment and export goods and services with high added value. This is one of the steps that will allow us to overcome poverty in the country and reduce emigration,” Boyko stressed.
