UKRAINE'S INVESTMENT ATTRACTIVENESS: THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL REFORMS AND INSTITUTIONAL STABILITY

Abstract

The investment attractiveness of Ukraine is analyzed in the context of digital reforms and institutional stability. The study examines the impact of geopolitical instability caused by the war with Russia and institutional barriers such as corruption and inefficient governance on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows. Despite these challenges, digital reforms, particularly the "Diia" app and e-governance systems, enhance transparency, reduce bureaucracy, and mitigate corruption risks, potentially boosting investor confidence. The problem lies in understanding how the interaction between these digital initiatives and institutional stability can stimulate investment, especially for postwar reconstruction requiring hundreds of billions of dollars. Recent research by domestic and foreign scholars is reviewed. Ukrainian researchers like V. Yemets et al. (2025) emphasize international investments' role in postwar recovery, highlighting adaptation to new challenges and green bonds for sustainability. V. Krylovskyi (2025) discusses investment climate determinants, focusing on political stability and anticorruption measures. O. Panchenko and V. Kovalchuk (2025) explore digital transformation as an attractiveness factor, correlating digital indices with GDP growth. S. S. Yaskov (2025) analyzes institutional environments, suggesting policy improvements for FDI. Unresolved issues include the integration of digital reforms and institutional stability in empirical models for postwar FDI. The article's goal is to analyze the impact of digital reforms and institutional stability on Ukraine's investment attractiveness. Tasks include assessing current FDI dynamics, examining digital reforms' role in transparency, analyzing institutional stability's influence on investor trust, and proposing integration recommendations. The main material evaluates Ukraine's attractiveness with econometric models, showing FDI recovery from 0.221 billion USD in 2022 to 3.3 billion in 2024, projecting 8 billion in 2025. Digital reforms save 12 billion USD and attract +20% IT investments. Institutional stability, with CPI 35, hinders FDI but reforms could add 20%. Interaction creates synergy, reducing corruption by 30%. Conclusions confirm digital reforms' positive impact, compensating institutional weaknesses. Prospects: AI in "Diia", EU comparisons, dynamic models for green investments.