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Overview of Mykolayiv Oblast Area - 24,600 sq. km Population- 1,327,000 GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION Mykolayiv region spreads out in the south of Ukraine, in the basin of the lower reach of the Southern Bug river, its territory is over 24,6 thousand sq. km. The region borders on three administrative regions of Ukraine, and in the south its territory occupies several hundred kilometers of the shoreline of the Black Sea and its estuaries. The Dniprovsko-Buzky, Buzky, Beresansky, and Tylygulsky estuaries cut deep inland and create a striking web of water stretches.

The specific natural conditions of the region refer it to the steppe zone. The climate is moderate-continental with a mild low-snow winter and a hot dry summer. Natural and climatic conditions of the region are favorable for intensive high-efficiency development of agriculture.

85 more than 10 km long rivers flow through the region's territory. The main river, which crosses the region from the north-west to the south-east, is the Southern Bug with the tributaries Ingul, Kodyma and others. The Ingulets, the Dnipro's tributary, flows in the east of the region. There are many ponds and water storage with a total water surface area over 13 thousand hectares in the region. Rivers and ponds are mainly used for irrigation of farm crops and fishing.

Occupying over 4.1% of the country's area, the region takes one of the lowest places in the density of population-54. 8 people per sq. km. As of 1 January 1998 the population amounted to 2.6% of the total population of Ukraine. About 60 % of the urban population reside in Mykolayiv, it's the administrative, industrial, and cultural center of the region.

Administratively the region is divided into 19 districts. It has 5 regional-subordination towns, 20 town-type villages and over 919 rural settlements.

The leading place in the structure of farming in northern districts is held by cereal and beet crop growing along with a developed dairy and beef animal husbandry and in the southern ones-by cereal crop, vegetable oil, vegetable and fruit growing along with beef and dairy livestock breeding.

Mineral and raw material resources in the region are represented by large resources of building materials. Deposits of variegated granites featuring a broad range of colors and high decorative properties, from which decorative-facing products are manufactured, are of great importance for the whole country. Explored resources of four granite deposits contain 20,000,000 cu. m., which is about 10 % of the resources in Ukraine.

Among other building materials, explored resources of building stone predominate. There are over 480,000,000 cu. m (6.2% of the resources in Ukraine) of this material for making rubble stone and crushed rock. Resources of carbonaceous and clayey rocks(raw materials for manufacture of cement) reach 85,000,000 tons (3.5% of the resources in Ukraine). Deposits of limestone, gneisses, quartz sands and clay for manufacture of lime, bricks, road materials, etc. are of an industrial importance as well. Cobalt-nickel ore resources have been explored in the region. There are over 3,000,000 tons (7% of the resources in Ukraine) of it, mineral water springs , therapeutic mud, etc .occur there.

Favorable factors of the economic-geographic location of the Mykolayiv region is its closeness to the large industrial centers of the Donetsk-Dnipro region and the outlet to the Black Sea. This increases the region's significance in the territorial division of labor, conditions the development of seaport facilities, of the sea transport and recreation facilities, they are of state and international importance.

Natural resources of the region, acquired experience in the foreign economic cooperation, existence of various forms of ownership open up broad opportunities for an effective utilization of investments of foreign partners.

The Mykolayiv region is a highly developed industrial region of the state, which has a high-capacity multisectoral industry that holds a very important place in the national-economy complex of Ukraine.

In the national division of labor, the region produces up to 2.5% of the industrial output. Industrial enterprises of the region make up 50% of the output of the shipbuilding in Ukraine, over 90% of the manufacture of gas turbines and 80% of alumina-the starting material for aluminium production, etc.

The leading industry is shipbuilding represented in the regional center by the large state-owned enterprises "Black Sea Shipbuilding Yard", "61 Komunar Shipbuilding Yard", and joint-stock company "Ocean", which is in the state of privatization. Main products of these high-capacity enterprises are tankers, bulk carriers, refrigerator ships, trawlers, floating hotels, launches, etc. The same sector includes a number of enterprises manufacturing the ship's equipment.

The production association "Zoria" and research-and-production association "Mashproekt" manufacture multipurpose gas turbine engines which are used both for equipment of naval vessels and ships and for natural gas transportation and electric power generation.

The privatized joint-stock company "Pervomaisky works 'Dizelmash'" manufactures diesel engines, diesel-generators and diesel-gas generators. Joint-stock companies "Mykolayiv Lubricating and Filtering Equipment Works" and "'Dormashina' Works" (being at the stage of privatization) manufacture asphalt spreaders, they are manufacturer-monopolists in Ukraine. The privatized joint-stock enterprise "Pervomaisky Works 'Fregat'" manufactures sprinkling machines.

The region has also a number of electrical engineering and electronic industry enterprises staffed with highly skilled personnel. The leading enterprises of these sectors are joint-stock companies that are at the stage of privatization - "Ingul", "Fakon", "Edmma", and others.

The share of output of the machine-building and metalworking industry of the region makes 2.8% of that of Ukraine and 16% of the region's industrial output.

A leading place in the industrial potential of the region is also held by nonferrous metallurgy represented by one of Europe-largest aluminium industry enterprises-the joint-stock company "Mykolayiv Alumina Works" with a capacity of 1,000,000 tons of alumina a year, which also is at the stage of privatization. The plant exports about 90% of its product to other countries and obtains finished aluminium in exchange.

The power industry of the region includes five enterprises, the leading of which is the production association "South-Ukrainian NPP". The nuclear power plant generates up to 20 bln. kWh of electric power a year, which thrice exceeds the region's requirements. The share of the region's power industry amounts to 11.5% of the total electric power generation in the state and to 25.3% of the electric power generated by nuclear power plants of Ukraine.

The building materials industry, based on the mining of local deposits of building raw materials, is well developed in the region. It includes the public joint-stock company "Yuhcement", whose annual capacity is over 1,000,000 tons of cement, brick plants whose total capacity exceeds 500,000,000 of equivalent bricks a year, reinforced-concrete product plants whose total annual capacity is 550 thousand cu. m, etc. In the region's northern part there are enterprises that make crushed rock and granite products.

The light industry includes considerable garment factories manufacturing men's, women's, and children's clothes (joint-stock companies "Elvis", "Santa Ukraina", "Iskra", "Yuzhanka", "Chaika", "Raduha"), knitwear and haberdashery (joint-stock companies "Aura", "Anhola"), raw leather, leather haberdashery and various footwear (joint-stock companies "Vozko", "Nikkozh", and "Niko"). This sector produces up to 5% of the total output of the Ukrainian light industry.

Capacities of joint-stock companies "Hileia" and "Tavriia" provide for processing up to 10 thousand tons of sugar beets a day. The region has also a confectionery plant, 10 food-and-flavor factories, two breweries and two canned food plants. The joint-stock company "Chervoni Vitryla" ("Red Sails") has considerable capacities for manufacture of various perfumery and cosmetics.

The region has also quite a number of seafood processing enterprises, the largest of which is the joint-stock company "Ochakiv Canned Fish Works", whose capacity is up to 16,000,000 equivalent cans a year. Products of this enterprise (various canned, frozen, salted, and smoked fish) are in a great demand.

In addition, food industry enterprises of the consumers' cooperative society, tens of sausage, canned food, and fish-processing shops as well as 450 processing mini-shops at farms and in the private sector are functioning in the region. These enterprises manufacture over 500 various foodstuffs a year.

The agriculture is the region's material production sector that is the second in the output and the first in the manpower employment. The region's farmland area exceeds 2,000,000 hectares, of which about 85% are arable lands (over 5% of the areas in Ukraine); 13.7%--pastures and hay meadows and 2%--fruit and berry plantations. The arable land area per resident of the region is of about 1.3 hectares, which is twice as many as in Ukraine on the average, and per agricultural worker-over 11 hectares. This is one of the highest indicators in the country. Farms of the region have up to 200 thousand hectares of irrigated lands. These specific features of the Mykolayiv region open up great opportunities for investments in the agriculture, aimed at application of industrial technologies, high-capacity and high-effective machinery.

The agricultural production in the region is carried out by collective agricultural enterprises and private farms. The region's share in the country's agricultural output reaches 3%.

The agricultural production structure is crop growing-animal breeding one. The share of crop growing products in the total output reaches 60%. Main crops grown in the region are cereals (winter wheat, summer barley, corn), which occupy over 40% of sown areas, industrial crops (sunflower and sugar beets), vegetables and melon crops. Gardening and wine-growing are also developed.

The region's average annual output makes up to 2,000,000 tons of grain, over 200 thousand tons of sunflower, 800 thousand tons of sugar beets, over 250 thousand tons of vegetables, etc. The region's share in the national production of grain reaches 5.6% (of winter wheat, 6,5%), and of sunflower, about 13%.

A developed plant growing, where the share of forage crops is considerable, is a good base for the animal husbandry, which is of meat-and-dairy character. Up to 30% of horned cattle and over 46% of pigs are held in personal private holdings.

The Mykolayiv region has a highly developed transport system which includes the railway, sea, river, motor, air, and pipeline transport.

The operational length of railway tracks within the region's boundaries is about 800 km, which amounts to 31.1 km per thousand sq. km of the region's area (for Ukraine - 38 km). All these lines mainly perform transit transportation. Transportation services are provided by the Kherson, Znamianka and Odesa divisions of the Odesa railway. There are 53 railway stations in the region, the largest of which are Mykolayiv, Voznesensk, Pervomaisk-on-Bug, Kolosivka and Snegurivka.