Mining and metallurgical group Metinvest considers it necessary to implement predictable tax and tariff policy in Ukraine, which will help attract foreign investment, otherwise large players will not invest in domestic enterprises.

This opinion was made public by head of the office of the general director of the Metinvest group Oleksandr Vodoviz during the conference "Strategic resources of Ukraine: scenarios for the development of the subsoil use industry."

He noted that the business in the field of extraction and processing of minerals is quite capital-intensive, so a potential investor must immediately invest significant funds in the development of the enterprise. Only large international players have access to such resources, and for them, stability and predictability of state policy are important.

"Ukraine is rich in minerals, but this business requires billions of dollars in investment. Will medium or small businesses come to this area? No, these must be large corporations. For example, to develop a mine like Pokrovsk, about $10 billion is needed. Let me remind you that Pokrovsk is the last mine with coking coal in Ukraine. Now there is a lot of talk about mines with coking coal in the west of Ukraine. Initial investments in such projects can be $3-4 billion - and this is only to get to the minerals. Will there be a company ready to invest these funds when tariffs for transportation, electricity and taxes are constantly changing? There must be some stability to attract investment," Vodoviz noted.

He added that it should also be taken into account that projects in the mining industry have a very long payback period. According to Ernst & Young, the investor's path from obtaining a license and processing permits to launching enrichment production takes an average of 18 years.

"The best criterion for whether everything is good in our country from the point of view of the mining industry is how many new mines and enrichment plants have been opened in Ukraine over the past 20 years. Yes, we have individual projects at the justification stage. But there are zero completed ones. That is the answer," the top manager noted.

According to his assessment, now Ukrainian businesses are more likely to independently invest in the development and support of enterprises.

"Investments in the extractive industry are mainly our investments. After all, Ukrainian business is export-oriented. We sell abroad and from there we invest here. Every year we invest an average of $1 billion. Are there many businesses that can invest such funds only in maintaining current operations?" Vodoviz asked.

He also added that the share of small and medium-sized businesses in Ukraine's GDP is only 20%, the rest is industry.

In addition, the head of the office of the Metinvest CEO drew attention to the fact that working in war conditions adds difficulties to business, and the government should take this into account, in particular, in the process of integrating European legislation.

He recalled that Ukraine will have three stages of rapprochement with the European Union. First, this is monitoring legislation, and in the extractive industry it concerns as many as 550 regulations. The second stage involves the development of new legislation or amendments to the current one. And the third stage is the implementation of the adopted laws. In general, this process will last four to five years.