Ukraine is economically competitive and a good prospect for becoming a member of the European Union, the president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) Werner Hoyer said on Friday.
"It is a country that can easily keep up with us," Hoyer told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper in comments published on Friday.
"In the area of digitalization, the Ukrainians are light years ahead of most Central European countries, including Germany," he said.
Also worth mentioning, he said, is agriculture, which plays an important role in global grain supplies.
"And they have an industry that was already the spearhead of development in the Soviet Union - for example in military technology."
But there are also considerable problems, Hoyer stressed.
"I am not naive. Corruption is endemic and extreme. That's why you have to be vigilant."
But he said it was wrong to underestimate the country.
He considers the hurdles for the Ukrainians to prepare for EU membership with reform processes "surmountable."
The EIB is mainly involved in project financing for critical infrastructure in Ukraine, but this was risky in the middle of a war.
"Sometimes a hospital we financed blows up," Hoyer told the newspaper.
"A beautiful bridge we had financed was demolished by the Ukrainians themselves because Russian tanks were on the other side of the river."
Regardless, he advocated timely reconstruction: "The later we start, the higher the reconstruction costs will be."
EU member states have pledged around €400 million ($438 million) for a new EIB Ukraine fund.
