The Cabinet of Ministers and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) have signed a memorandum of understanding on a program for financing regional roads in Ukraine.

Prime Minister Oleksii Honcharuk and EBRD Vice President Alain Pilloux signed the document at the “RE:think. Invest in Ukraine” investment forum in Mariupol, the CFTS correspondent reports.

The EBRD can now work directly with Ukraine’s regions following amendment of the relevant Ukrainian legislation, Pilloux said in comments to the CFTS.

“This is part of a joint effort with the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers to improve the country's infrastructure. In particular, this memorandum involves improvement of the road infrastructure in the Kherson region. This is a completely new opportunity for us because we can now work directly with regions of Ukraine, thanks to the changes that were recently made to the legislation," he said.

Pilloux added that the EBRD previously financed construction of subways in Kharkiv and the Dnipro and trolleybus services in Dnipro, Kryvyi Rih, and Mariupol.

The EBRD and the Kherson regional administration also signed an agreement on preparation to finance a project for development of regional roads in the Kherson region.

According to the Interfax Ukraine news agency, this document was signed by the Kherson region’s Governor Yurii Husev and the EBRD’s Managing Director for Eastern Europe and the Caucasus Matteo Patrone.

"This agreement is very important because it opens up new opportunities for development of the transport infrastructure in the Kherson region. Firstly, it involves road infrastructure, implementation of a bridge project in Kherson. I hope that this is another phase of cooperation with the EBRD, which we appreciate very much in our region," the regional governor said after signing the document.