Ministers: Estonia must contribute to reconstruction of Zhytomyr region

• Published date: 17 May 2022
• Publication title: LETA

TALLINN, May 17, BNS - Estonia's Minister of Entrepreneurship and Information Technology Andres Sutt and Minister of Economic Affairs and Infrastructure Taavi Aas met with members of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and a delegation from the Zhytomyr region in Tallinn on Monday to discuss the post-war reconstruction of the region and ways how Estonia could contribute to it.

According to the ministers, Ukraine has shown exceptional handling of a military aggression aimed against it, and the task of Estonia and the rest of Europe is to help them win the war against Russia and rebuild the damaged areas.

Aas said that Estonia also supports rapid and strong sanctions.

"Estonia has been vocal in its position to raise the price of aggression as high as possible for Russia. The responsibility of the aggressor and the obligation to compensate for what has been destroyed must not be forgotten also in the process of rebuilding Ukraine," he emphasized.

The delegation from Zhytomyr is in Estonia to discuss the reconstruction of the region with various authorities during several days. One of the objectives of their trip is to introduce the Zhytomyr region to various authorities and businesses in Estonia, including the situation there and the opportunities for business and cooperation.

The Zhytomyr region is similar to Estonia in population size and about a quarter smaller in geographical size. In terms of natural resources, region is one of the richest in Ukraine, with a very large forestry and mining sector.

Sutt noted that Estonia also has a very strong forest and timber industry sector.

"Estonia is the largest exporter of wooden houses in the European Union, today the Estonian woodhouse industry has about 25-30 percent free capacity without additional investments," he said, pointing out that the Zhytomyr region has large forest stocks and is very interested in timber exports. Such cooperation would help alleviate the shortage of raw materials for our timber sector, but also...