Economics of Ukrainian Polesie

Ukrainian Polesie has a rather favorable geographical position along the northern border of the south. Transport arteries connecting Ukraine with Belarus and partially with Russia and Western Europe pass through this region. Thus, Polesie is a connecting link, on the one hand, between Ukraine and Belarus, Poland , the countries of Northern Europe and the Baltic states , and on the other hand, between Russia and Western Europe. The strategic position of the region allows us to actively involve Polesye not only in the development of inter-regional intra-Ukrainian relations, but also in trade and industrial relations of Ukraine with other states, the creation of free economic zones, the development of an international system of trade, transport and communications, the creation of zones of inter-regional and interstate cooperation.

The main conditions that determined the specific features of the modern production potential of Polesie are, firstly, the special structure of natural resource potential, which is dominated by the share of agricultural resources, and secondly, the long-term agro-industrial specialization of the region's economy. In the 90s in industry, especially in agriculture, there was a significant moral and physical aging of fixed assets. In many industries, the expansion and updating of production capacities has virtually ceased. In this case, special damage was done to the specialization sectors of the economic region - light industry, mechanical engineering, and agriculture. The production potential concentrated in the area of radioactive contamination is not properly used. This is especially true for agricultural enterprises.

In the territorial structure of social production (for the production of gross value added per capita), Chernigov Oblast is characterized by the best indicators, and the Volyn Oblast is the worst.

An analysis of the sectoral structure of gross value added indicates that the Polessye economic complex, in comparison with the rest of Ukraine, has a larger share of agriculture and a relatively lower proportion of industry, transport and communications, construction, housing and communal services, and the service sector. To balance territorial and economic proportions, these sectors of the economy have become the priorities of structural policy while maintaining the overall agro-industrial orientation of the regional economy.

Given the region’s lack of energy, the region’s energy base includes, along with its own (coal and brown coal, gas, oil and peat, firewood), imported energy resources. The main markets for the production of industrial and agricultural complexes of Polesie is its own domestic market, as well as the markets of other economic regions of Ukraine, which receive products of mechanical engineering, food and light industry, construction materials. Products of the fuel industry, however, are consumed mainly within Polesie.

The specialization of the industrial complex of the region is shown by comparisons of the industrial structure of commodity products of the industry of Ukraine and Polesye. So, if in the all-Ukrainian structure of industrial production the products of the fuel and energy and metallurgical complex dominate (in total 47.5% of the total production), for Polesie the products of the processing industries (food and light industries together) are predominant.

The specific weight of the products of the fuel and energy complex and metallurgy as a whole is only 26.6% in Polesie, and the latter is practically not represented (1.2%), although the fuel industry and energy exceed the national indicator. The share of products of the main production sector - food and processing industries for the Polessky Economic Region exceeds 37% compared to the average Ukrainian figure of 19.1%. Other areas of specialization of the region are woodworking and pulp and paper, light and building materials industry.

Analysis of the dynamics of industrial production in Ukraine and Polessky district for 1990 - 2002 as a whole, it shows that basically the decline trends in industrial production in the Polessky economic region correspond to the general Ukrainian. However, the negative sign for the region was more significant than in the country as a whole, a decrease in industrial production to the peak of the crisis period of the 90s. Trends lag were observed in the area and during the period of stabilization of industrial production ( 1998 - 2000 ). As already noted, the light and food industries, machine building and metalworking, as well as the timber, woodworking and pulp and paper industries, are common for all regions of Polesie; construction industry. In addition to the above, specialization industries are: in Rivne region - electric power, chemical and petrochemical industries, in Volyn and Chernihiv - fuel industry, which determine the place of Polesie in the interregional division of labor in the country. The main industrial enterprises of the region use local raw materials, although some industries (in the light, chemical and petrochemical industries, in the energy sector) use raw materials and semi-finished products from other regions.

The leading role in the economy of the region is traditionally played by agriculture, food and light industry. Given the specific nature of climatic conditions, Polesie agriculture specializes in cattle breeding for dairy and meat production, pig breeding, growing potatoes, flax, grain, sugar beets, vegetables, berries, fruits, cultivated mushrooms and canned food from them, and developed poultry farming. In the structure of sown areas of agricultural crops in Polesie, as in the rest of Ukraine, grain crops dominate (in 2002 - 50.2% of the sown area of ​​the region and 55.8% in the rest of the country). It produces 9.1% of the total Ukrainian grain production, 13.1% of sugar beets, 24.1% of potatoes, 10.1% of vegetables, 13.3% of meat, 16.5% of milk, 11.1% of eggs.

• Mykola Butko . Transformation of evil in social and economic development of regions // Scheid (journal) , 2004. (Ukrainian)

• S.Gumenyuk: Mi shy with Polisya to the waste! (Ukrainian)