160 investment projects were set up in Ukraine for the last eight years
For the last eight years 160 investment projects were recorded in Ukraine from 98 companies. ‘Financial Services’ appeared to be the leading sector for investment projects’ realization, while ‘Retail’ took the position of the top-activity. This data, being relevant for the period January 2003 and July 2011, was provided by fDi Markets research and fDi Magazine, a traditional partner of the Black Sea Economic Forum – the platform for enhancing competitiveness and investment attractiveness of the Black Sea regions and countries, and Ukraine in particular. Editor in Chief of fDi Magazine Courtney Fingar will moderate a session on the investment climate in Ukraine at the II International Black Sea Economic Forum. The top three source markets for outward investment in Ukraine were Austria, Poland and Russia, providing 15%, 14% and 12% of investment projects respectively. The full list of investment markets included also Germany, UK, Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Italy, Netherlands and other countries. The top three destination cities for inward investment were Kyiv, Odessa and Lviv. While ‘Financial Services’ was the leading sector for investment (18% of projects), the leading business activity was ‘Retail’, which accounted for 27% of projects. The average number of jobs created per project was 226. “Eastern Europe, southeast Europe and Russia replaced the Middle East as the fourth largest source market for FDI projects following a 20% increase in projects overseas in 2010, and among the countries of the Black Sea Basin, Turkey appeared to be one of the most attractive for future inbound FDI. Investment flows to Ukraine, despite some considerable fluctuations over the years, remained remarkably resilient overall. Last year’s results show a 23,5% growth in the number of investment projects into the country. Data from fDi Markets report underlines that Ukraine remains an attractive investment destination”, – said Courtney Fingar, Editor, fDI Magazine, Financial Times Ltd. Kateryna Yurchenko, Deputy Head, Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea on financial and economic activities, pointed out: “What we need to enhance the investment potential of Ukraine as a whole and its regions in particular is to ensure close cooperation of state authorities, business representatives and industry experts in the field. The Black Sea Economic Forum proved to be a real platform for this kind of cooperation and a full-fledged dialogue. And probably the most significant evidence for this is the fact, that one year after the I Black Sea Economic Forum, in the first half of 2011 Crimea experienced a fourfold increase in the volume of international investment attracted, compared to the same period of the last year, and according to first half-year results of 2011 volume of attracted foreign investments has grown four times comparing to the same period of the last year”. Denis Khrenov, Legal & Corporate Affairs Director, Sun InBevUkraine, added: “Being one of the major investors in the field, and to the Ukrainian economy as a whole, we know for sure the importance of an effective cooperation with all stakeholders, including state authorities and business community, to ensure the realization of remarkable investment projects. As of today we have invested around 1 billion USD developing our business in Ukraine, and we have ambitious plans for future.” II International Black Sea Economic Forum, which will take place on October 7-8, 2011 in the Livadia Palace in Crimea, will bring together for rewarding discussion over the investments potential of the Black Sea countries key representatives of government, business, expert circles and media from more than 10 countries of the Black Sea region as well as the high-level speakers and experts from Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland, Singapore, USA and France. Among the numerous honorable participants of the Forum, who have already confirmed their participation are: Andriy Klyuev, First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Boris Kolesnikov, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, Mykola Prysiazhnyuk, Minister of Agriculture of Ukraine, Valeriu Tabara, Minister of Agriculture of Romania, Archil Kekelia, First Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia, Olivier Adam, UN Resident Coordinator in Ukraine, Victor Arkhipov, Chairman at Russian National Committee for Black Sea Economic Cooperation, Federico Bonaglia, Head of Policy Dialogue Division Development Centre, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Rachel Ziemba, Director of Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (CEEMEA) and global macroeconomic issues at Roubini Global Economics, Igor Burakovsky, Head of the Board of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting, Prof. Bernd von Droste, Founding director of the Unesco World Heritage Center, Andriy Ermolaev, Director of the National institute of strategic researches, Vladyslav Kas’kiv, Head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects of Ukraine David Lovegrove, Director, International Development Ireland LTD, Garry Vinokur, Director, Emerging Markets, Credit Special Situations & Investments, Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Black Sea Economic Forum is an annual international platform for the dialogue of leading government and business representatives in the Black Sea region, organized under the auspices of President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych by the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. In 2010 Forum brought together over 250 participants from the Black Sea basin countries, such as: Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Moldova, Armenia and Azerbaijan. The audience of the Forum 2011 will include around 120 participants. High-level government and business representatives as well as the diplomats and experts have already confirmed their participation in the forum. fDi Markets is the only online database tracking crossborder greenfield investment covering all sectors and countries worldwide. It provides real-time monitoring of investment projects, capital investment and job creation with powerful tools to track and profile companies investing overseas. fDi Markets is a central bank of information on the globalization of business and is an indispensable tool for multinational companies, investment advisers, economic development organizations and research institutions. Interfax-Ukraine news agency is the chief media partner of the event