Ireland’s Kingspan Group is going ahead with a large (and hugely symbolic) investment project in Ukraine worth more than $280m (€255.53m), Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said.
In a post on Telegram, Shmyhal said he had discussed the details of the implementation of this project with the company’s management.
“The Irish company Kingspan Group is implementing [its project]. We discussed the details of [this] with the company’s management in accordance with the law on state support for investment projects with significant investments,” wrote Shmyhal, adding that the government's investment promotion agency, UkraineInvest, is overseeing the project, which was first announced, tentatively, in late 2022.
The new project, a high-tech campus for the production of construction materials, will create more than 700 jobs, according to Sergiy Tsivkach, CEO of UkraineInvest. The Ukrainian Government will be contributing to the creation of infrastructure for the functioning of the manufacturing enterprise.
Kingspan is one of the largest investors to bet on, and invest in, Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The company is a world leader in the production of high-tech, energy-efficient building materials, materials that Ukraine will need to rebuild destroyed housing, industrial facilities and other infrastructure. Kingspan will also make it possible to raise the standards of production processes in Ukraine to the level of best global practices.
Ukraine is in desperate need of foreign capital to revamp its economy and rebuild the country. Beyond the reconstruction bill, which has already surpassed at least $349bn (Hrv12.89trn), private companies are still investing in vibrant parts of the Ukrainian economy, both for ethical and financial reasons.
In fact, over the coming year or two, the country is gearing up for a $5bn pipeline of foreign investment in the manufacturing space alone, according to Tsivkach. Some 25 companies are involved in that figure, including Kingspan.
