Volodymyr Bondar, Head of the Volyn Regional State Administration, met on November 24 with Ksenia Lyapina, People's Deputy of Ukraine and Head of the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet of Ministers. During a working visit, they visited the city of Novovolynsk, which by a Decree of the President of Ukraine had been designated since January 1, 2000 as a territory of priority development with a special regime of investment activity in the Volyn region. The situation changed after the adoption of the Law of Ukraine No. 2505 of 25.03.05 "On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine on the State Budget for 2005." This very problem was discussed by the participants of the round table – Ksenia Lyapina, Volodymyr Bondar, Novovolynsk Mayor Viktor Sapozhnikov, and heads of business entities. They analyzed the state of implementation of investment projects in the territory of priority development of Volyn. This was reported to the Western Information Corporation by the press service of the Regional State Administration.

The speakers reported that as of 01.10.2005, 15 investment projects with an estimated cost of 37.6 million US dollars were operating in the TPD in Novovolynsk and the urban-type settlement of Zhovtneve, and 1,640 new jobs had been created. During the period of operation of the TPD, products worth 624.5 million UAH were sold (23.4 million UAH in October), and products worth 5.2 million UAH were exported (0.3 million UAH in October). According to operational data, as of 01.11.2005, 55.5 million UAH had been received into the budget from the implementation of projects (1.8 million UAH in October).

Volodymyr Bondar noted that the problem of eliminating tax benefits for business entities operating in the territory of priority development is felt not only by investors but also by the residents of this region. He added: "Restoring the preferential regime will allow us to preserve the positive trends that have emerged, stabilize the investment climate in the region, and preserve the newly created jobs."

People's Deputy of Ukraine Ksenia Lyapina supported the businessmen's demands for the restoration of benefits and called on the round table participants to take initiative: "We need to adjust the optimal regime of regulatory support for business activity, because otherwise it will be difficult to hope for serious economic, humanitarian, and social changes in the state."

"Our task is to restore the investment attractiveness of the region, and through joint efforts to create such a space for business operation that would be balanced in terms of relations between government and business, business and government. We, the representatives of local government, are the first party interested in normalizing relations with business," emphasized Volodymyr Bondar, thanking the entrepreneurs for their trust.

At the end of the round table, the head of the regional state administration and the people's deputy visited BRV-Ukraine LLC, where since the start of operations 465 new jobs had been created, products (MDF facades, furniture parts) worth 121.4 million UAH had been manufactured, and 11.7 million UAH had been received into budgets of all levels.

Read also:

Investors of the Novovolynsk priority development zone filed 63 lawsuits totaling over 130 million hryvnias