Kyiv region strikes agreements on investment projects worth $2 b, expects rise to $10 b
Kyiv, September 15 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Kyiv region plans to expand the package of its investment projects to $10 billion, head of Kyiv Regional Administration Anatoliy Prysiazhniuk said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.
"We have plans for today: Kyiv region will have a package worth almost $10 billion," he said.
As of today, Kyiv Regional Administration has already struck agreements on investment projects worth $2 billion, he said.
"Conditions are turning out to be good today for attracting investors," he said.
Measures to simplify the permission and licensing system taken both at the national level, in particular, with the adoption of the budget code, and in future of the Tax Code, and by the leadership of Kyiv region, are conducive to this, he said.
Prysiazhniuk also noted that Kyiv region had set up a coordinating council.
"Today, investors who come to the region don't have to go to different agencies and agree a project over months and years. I have an investment company that works together with the coordinating council, and, working with this or that investor, it ensures a full service for the documents [it deals with]," he said.
The investors are also provided with benefits, in particular in rent payment for land. He said that in the first three years an investor pays a reduced rent for land, set at 0.5-1%, which in future gradually grows depending on the type of entrepreneurial activity.
Almost $100 million in investment was injected into Kyiv region's economy from January through August 2010, Prysiazhniuk said. Among the projects that are being implemented this year are the construction of the Myronivsky sugar refinery and a floating grain storage facility in Pereyaslav-Khmelnytsky.
According to Kyiv Regional Administration, the region's economy attracted $1.5 billion in investment as of April 1, 2010, which is $877.3 per capita.
Eight hundred and ninety two companies based in the region and partners from 64 countries are involved in international investment cooperation.
Over 90% of foreign direct investment comes for 10 countries: the Netherlands with $462 million, Cyprus with $396.4 million, the United Kingdom with $144.4 million, Poland with $80.8 million, Germany with $78 million, Panama with $75.7 million, the United States with $42.2 million, Austria with $39.1 million, the Virgin Islands with $27.6 million, and Russia with $26.6 million.
Most of the investment was made in Brovary district (31.7%), Kyivo-Sviatoshynsky district (8.1%), Myronivsky district (8%), Vyshgorodsky district (6.4%), as well as the town of Brovary (10.7%) and the town of Boryspil (6.2%).