Construction complex and investment activity

155 business companies operate in the construction complex of the oblast; for the six months of 2004, they invested 784,9 million hryvnyas into fixed capital (counting all sources of financing) which was twice as big as for the corresponding period of 2003. The oblast takes the 1st place among the regions of Ukraine by this figure.

The volumes of new housing increased by 66%, or by 29.7 thousand sq meters.

The total volume of foreign direct investment into the economy of the region as of July 1, 2004 was 59.4 million US dollars, or by 14.2% bigger than for the corresponding period of 2003.

The greatest volumes of foreign investment have flown into the business companies of production of glasswork, 25 million US dollars, transport and communication companies, 19.5 million US dollars, wood processing industry, 6.5 million US dollars, wholesale trade, 4.9 million US dollars.

Transport and communication

In 2003 the increase in volume of cargo transportation made 37.6%, of which passenger transportation made 6.8%.

97.8% of villages and townships have regular bus transportation. In particular, in 2004 transport services were extended to 22 villages and townships of the oblast.

The electrification of railway tracks Zdolbuniv-Rivne-Kiverzhi-Kovel has been completed, the tracks in Kovel depot of the Rivne station have been electrified for cargo trains, the locomotive depot of Zdolbuniv station and railway station in Klesiv have been repaired; the repair work at railway stations of Kostopil and Rokitne are expected to be completed soon.

The “Rivne” Airport is acquiring the status of an international airport. The pace of renewals of automobile park and railway rolling stock are rather high. Still, the development of road services needs the additional efforts, in particular along the international transport corridors that go through the territory of the oblast.

The development of modern communication facilities is constantly progressing in the Rivne oblast.

For 2003 there have been constructed 864 km of fiber-optic lines, 31 km of cable and 160 km of connecting communication lines, have been built the city and village automatic telephone exchanges for 6,890 and 2,208 telephone numbers, respectively.
Telecommunications companies modernize the equipment, replace out-of-date analog telephone exchanges with modern digital automatic telephone exchanges, extending the telephone network.

The telephone provision for population is 16.4 for 100 people or 41.8 for 100 families.

Also the mobile communication develops fast. During 2003 the coverage of the oblast territory increased by 22%; the quantity of subscribers increased by 2.5 times.

84.5% of the oblast territory is covered by mobile communication.

100 radio nodes support the mobile network, of which 71 are located in the countryside.

Supply of energy and energy saving

Three power plants are located and functioning on the territory of the oblast: Rivne Nuclear Power Plant of Energoatom, Mlynivska Hydropower Plant and Chrinniska Hydropower Plant.

“AIS-Rivneenergo” OJSC (a company with US investments) supplies electric energy to the consumers of the oblast.

For the period of 8 months of 2004 1,308.8 million kWt hr of electric energy have been supplied through the network of “AIS-Rivneenergo”, which is 8.5% greater than in the corresponding period of 2003. There has been supplied 245 million kWt hr to the residential consumers (increase by 5.3%)

Rivne Industrial Line Department of the Strategic Gas Pipeline and “Rivnegas” OJSC provide the transportation of natural gas on the territory of the oblast.

Oblast, district and city energy saving programs have been elaborated and are being implemented in the region. For the six months of 2004 the level of saving of fuel and energy resources stood at 78.8 thousand tons of the conditional fuel.

Industry

Oblast’s 265 industrial companies of different ownership forms employ 46 thousand people. The share of the oblast in the industrial output of Ukraine is 1.2%.

The upward dynamics in the industrial output of the oblast remains stable during the last six years.

For the period of 8 months of 2004 the industrial output accounted for 2.27 billion hryvnyas, which is by 12.3%, or by 248,7 million hryvnyas, greater than the result of the corresponding period of 2003.

During the current year the increase of industrial output was by 70.4% in the light industry, by 36.4% in chemicals, by 31.7% in construction materials manufacturing and glasswork, by 27.3% in mining, by 28% in wood manufacturing and woodwork, by 12.6% in machine building, by 4.9% in output and distribution of electricity, gas and water.

18 districts of the oblast ensured the increase in production.

	Share,%
Industry	100.0
Mining industry	2.1
Incl.
Mining of energy materials	0.2
Mining of non-energy materials	1.9
Manufacturing	61.4
Incl.
Food industry and processing of agricultural goods	16.5
Light industry	0.6
Wood and woodwork industry	9.0
Paper industry, printing and publishing	0.5
Chemicals and petrochemicals	12.2
Incl.
Chemicals	11.9
Production of other non-metal mineral goods (construction materials, glasswork)	15.0
Machine building, repairs and assembly of machines and equipment	5.3
Unclassified production	1.0
Production and distribution of electricity and gas	36.5

Agriculture

The priority areas of development of the agrarian sector of the economy in the oblast are cultivation of grains and cereals, sugar beets, potatoes and vegetables, and manufacture of meat-and-milk production.

The agrarian reform resulted in establishing of 422 private agribusiness entities, 5 state agricultural companies, 417 farms and over 200 thousand individual agricultural businesses.

Oblast has 206 agricultural municipal companies; 34 cooperatives provide services on farming, harvest and cargo transportation, veterinary and supply and sale services, technical support services operating in the.

According to the results of the first six months of 2004 the oblast ended up the 6th among the regions of Ukraine by the rates of increase of gross output in agriculture and the 7th by the volumes of agricultural production on 100 hectare.

For the period of 8 months of 2004, gross output of all business entities in agriculture accounted for 916.4 million hryvnyas which is by 86.5 million hryvnyas, or by 10.4%, greater than for the corresponding period of the last year. The production of grain increased by 46.3%, of vegetables, by 32.2%, of milk, by 7.2%. Birds livestock increased by 3.5%, sheep and goats livestock, by 4.6%.

Development of the internal market

The total amount of retail goods turnover for January – August of 2004 increased in comparison with the corresponding period of 2003 by 9.7% and accounted for 739.8 million hryvnyas.

Retailers also show a further increase in the share of domestically produced goods sold.

Besides, the share of modern trade centers is growing by the accelerating rates in the structure of retail traders of the oblast.
The positive trends of increasing volume of services provided is preserved, the economic activity of business companies in the sphere of consumer services has got more active in the oblast.

The network of customer services companies of different forms of ownership increased by 327, including by 182 in the countryside increased.

Foreign trade activities

The foreign trade turnover for January – July of 2004 increased by 31.7% and accounted for 244.1 million US dollars.

The greatest volumes of goods were exported to People’s Republic of China, Russian Federation, Poland, Turkey, Federal Republic of Germany, Italy, and the United States of America.

In structure of exports the greatest share belongs to chemicals, including fertilizers, (42.5%), wood and wood products (24.8%), plant growing products (8.4%), electric equipment (3.9%).

The greatest volumes of import inflows came from the Federal Republic of Germany, Poland, Hungary, France, the United States of America, and Russian Federation.

Imports include chemical products (27.5%), machinery and equipment (21.9%), paper and cardboard (8.9%).

Development of private entrepreneurship

The share of small business companies makes 33.7% of the contribution to the local budget and 23% for the oblast budget.

Statistically, 102 small businesses in the oblast operate for every 10 thousand people who dwell in the city, which is by 2.5 times greater than the average oblast index (40 companies).

For simplification of the procedure of conducting economic activity the single registration window has been established in Rivne. The total amount of retail goods turnover for the first six months of 2004 increased by 17%.