To follow the conference online: events.myconferencesuite.com/Ukraine_House_Toronto/reg/landing
EDMONTON, Canada — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Toronto next week for a major international conference on Ukraine’s future.
From July 2 to 4, Canada will co-chair the third Ukraine Reform Conference that provides the nation with a new opportunity to showcase recent reform progress, present plans for future reform initiatives and strengthen the dialogue and partnership with the international community.
After Zelensky’s landslide victory on April 21, and snap parliamentary elections on July 21, Ukraine will undergo major changes in its political leadership. While ex-President Petro Poroshenko’s administration carried out numerous reforms in the last five years, the country’s law enforcement and judicial system remain corrupt and unable to deliver justice. Moreover, oligarchs control key segments of the economy and operate with impunity, just like Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, or parliament.
Zelensky is scheduled to meet with Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and address the Economic Club of Canada on July 3.
Trudeau’s office said he and Zelensky will discuss Ukraine’s progress and its path toward integration with Europe.
“Canada and Ukraine share a deep and historic friendship built on shared values and strong people-to-people bonds,” reads the statement. “I look forward to my meeting with President Zelensky, where I will reaffirm Canada’s commitment to the Ukrainian people, and discuss ways to deepen our economic partnership and create good, middle class jobs in both of our countries.”
Following the previous two conferences which took place in London and Copenhagen in 2017 and 2018 respectively, the three-day gathering in Toronto will include more than 300 of Ukraine’s friends and international partners. Foreign ministers, heads of international institutions, parliamentarians, the private sector, civil society and think tanks, will gather to support Ukraine’s reform process and its path to Euro-Atlantic integration.
For the first time in Toronto, there is going to be a special integral element of the conference — Ukraine House, a networking platform for engagement between government, business, activists and media. Ukraine House has become available in partnership with UkraineInvest, the Ukrainian government’s investment promotion office, and with the support of Global Affairs Canada.
The conference will start with a ministerial meeting on July 2, followed by two days of discussions taking place at The Fairmont Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto.
Discussions will focus on Ukraine as an attractive and predictable emerging market with a measurable risk-reward profile; Canada and Ukraine’s contributions to facing the global challenges namely fake news, cybercrimes and data protection, status of women and health issues among the others. The panels will be dedicated to cyber security, artificial intelligence and big data analysis, examples of successful decentralization and the role of women in power.
Ukraine’s Minister of Finance Oksana Markarova, Artem Bidenko of the Ministry of Information Policy, Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, vice prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Mykhailo Titarchuk, deputy minister of Economic Development and Trade, Minister of Regional Development Hennadiy Zubko, Ulana Suprun, acting minister of health and Nataliya Boyko, deputy minister for European Integration at the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry have already confirmed their attendance for the event.
The discussion day of July 3 will finish with Darko Skulsky, co-producer of HBO’s Chernobyl — the highest-rated TV show of all time on IMDB, who will talk about his experiences and about opportunities in the Ukrainian film industry. The conference’s final note is going to be a visual one.
On July 4, the attendees will have a chance to watch Hutsulka Ksenya movie, featuring love story of a young Ukrainian-American man Yaro and a Hutsul girl Ksenya, accompanied with Ukrainian ethno music performed by DakhaBrakha and Dakh Daughters, a Ukrainian music and theatre project.
