Kyiv Oblast Facts & Figures

Kyiv

Kyiv.jpg (58153 bytes)

Facts and Figures How to get there

Geographic Information

Area - 834 sq. km
Population - 2,630,000
Large industrial enterprises - 405
Enterprises with foreign capital - 2,100
Banks - 91
Banks with foreign capital - 6
Investment funds and companies - 188
Insurance companies - 80
Total area of international standard office centres - 53,900 sq. M
Hotels - 114

Territorial Location

Kyiv is advantageously situated in the heart of Europe between 50.5 degrees in latitude and 30.6 degree in longitude.
The natural conditions in this regions are characteristic for Polissya and the Forest Steppe. The climate in Kyiv is moderately continental with relatively mild winters and warm summers. The average temperature in January are -6.1 degrees, and +19.2 degrees in July. The average annual amount of precipitation is about 600 mm.

Certain peculiarities and different natural conditions of Kyiv are connected with its location on the banks of the biggest waterway of the country, the Dnipro River, the middle of which is divided into a number of sounds (Rusanivka, Desenka), coves (Matviyivska, Havan), flooded lakes (Bile, Vasylivske, Vozdvyzhenske, Vydubytske, Dovhe, Iordanske, Klebanske, Klyashtorne, Lukovo, Radunka, Svyatyshche, Synyakovo, Try Toni, Vuzke, Ulupka, Cherneche), and sandy beaches (the best of which is on Trukhaniv Island). The small rivers Lybid, Syrets, Vita, Horenka and Nivka flow through the city's territory.

The right bank part of Kyiv is situated on hills and slopes: Starokyivska, Pecherska. Chorna, Lysa, Batyieva, Zamkova, Khorevytsa and Shchekavytsa. As of late the city's territory is being expanded thanks to the development of its left bank, located on which are the residential estates of Troyeshchyna, Poznyaky and Osokorky.

The maximum absolute sea level on the city's territory reaches 200 m, and 100-120 m in relation to altitude.
Kyiv has a wealth of greenery. Situated within its limits are:
· 41 territorial regions of the nature preserve fund, in part, the Botanical Gardens named after Academician O. V. Fomin, the Central Botanical Gardens of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Syretsky Dendrological Park, a Zoo and 9 parks, monuments of landscape architecture;
· spacious natural and man made forest parks and parks, in part, Pushcha-Vodytsya, Koncha-Zaspa, Svyatoshynsky Park, the Holosiyivsky National Preserve, Central Park (uniting 5 parks situated along the Dnipro), Park of Glory and parks named after Olexandr Pushkin and Taras Shevchenko, the Hydropark, and others.

Kyiv is ringed by an uninterrupted green belt of forests with dacha/resort areas: Boyarka, Bucha, Vorzel, Irpin, Klavdiyevo, Koncha-Zaspa, and others.

The area of the green zone is 43,600 hectares making up 168 sq. m per one resident.

The greenery in Kyiv accounts for 250 varieties of trees and shrubs, including the broadly known Kyiv chestnut trees and poplars.

Infrastructure

The Kyiv telephone system is the biggest in the country. The number of telephones in 1996 made up 830,100or 13% of the total number in Ukraine. In the average there are 64 telephone lines per 100 families (the average for Ukraine is 35). Private telephones account for 84% of this number.

Of the 140 district automatic telephone exchanges, 26 are digital, and optical fiber network makes up 15% of the length of cable telephone system.

Kyiv is a large transport junction of Ukraine. The city is situated on the crossroad of railway lines which connect Ukraine's capital with practically all European capitals, as well as large cities of Russia and Belarus and all large cities of Ukraine. Nine freight terminals ensure the transit of cargo through Kyiv.

Kyiv is the air gates for baggage and passengers flying to Ukraine from other countries. The city has two airports.
1. Boryspil, located 30 km from the city, services mainly international flights. It connects Kyiv with more than 40 world capitals.
2. Kyiv (Zhulyany), run by the municipality, is located within city limits. It mainly services domestic flights.
Kyiv also has cargo and passenger river ports.

The city's transport network included 56 km of underground lines, 287 km of tram lines, 330 km of trolley bus lines and 1350 km of bus routes. At the service of the city's population are 537 underground coaches, 681 tram wagons, 672 trolley buses and 1754 buses, which daily convey close to 2.2 million passengers. The traffic network of Kyiv numbers 1564 km of roads, 136 bridges and overpasses.

The total length of city's water main makes up almost 4,000 km. In the last years, the capacity of the city water main has remained relatively stable within the limits of 2,100 cu. m per day.

The length of the gas main in Kyiv makes up to 1900 km. Approximately 90% of the apartments and buildings in Kyiv are gas supplied. Besides, natural gas is used at industrial enterprises of Kyiv. Over 3.7 billion cu. m of gas were supplied to gas consumers in 1966.

Job Market

The city can boast for the best manpower resources of the country: highly qualified workers, talented research and design collectives, and experienced managers of all levels. Testifying to the level of qualification of the capital's manpower resources is the fact that even under an economic crisis the level of official unemployment in the city remained the lowest in the country (0.5% of Ukraine's 2.3% average). The low level of official unemployment does not mean that there are no manpower resources in the city. The majority of the enterprises are not operating at full capacity creating the so called concealed unemployment. Thus, in reality there is a big job market in the city.

Industry

Compared to production decline of 1996, the output of industry located in Kiev show a 3.8% increase. The highest indices of production volume were registered in power engineering (16.6%), medical (12.1%) and food (11.4%) industries.

83.7% of the city's industrial enterprises are not government owned. These enterprises accounted for almost 70% of what was produced in the city in 1997; more specifically, 97% of light industry goods, 81% of food products, and 72% of machine building, metal and woodworking industries.

Proceeds from economic activity
Specific weight of city's enterprises
in national volume

The biggest specific weight in the sector structure of the city's industry is made up by enterprises of power engineering, machine building and metal working, the light and food industries.

In the future it is planned to transfer state run industrial enterprises (with the exception of those which have strategic national significance) and state package of shares of privatized industrial enterprises to the management of the Kyiv City State Administration in order to coordinate their production activity and organize the rendering of assistance for stepping up entrepreneurship.

Capital Construction

Capital investment. Share of
Kyiv in the general volume
of Ukraine

Kyiv occupies first place among the regions of Ukraine as to the volume of capital investment per capita, and third place as to incomes from building and assembly works and total capital investment.

There is a large number of incomplete construction projects in Kyiv, which could be used for the realization of investment projects both in the sphere of production and in the service sphere.

The scale of housing construction is constantly growing. In 1997, the building of housing increased by 20% as compared to 1996. The total of capital investment into housing construction in Kyiv is one of the biggest in Ukraine. Operating in the city is a unique building complex, the Kyivmiskbud Holding Company, which was the first in Ukraine to apply the new scheme of building housing by attracting funds from private investors.

Almost more than one half of the housing premises in the city have been privatized.
Trade and Service Sphere

Kyiv occupies the first place among regions of Ukraine in the volume of retail trade turnover (13.9% of the country's total), volume of proceeds from rendering paid services, volume of per capita retail trade turnover and size of retail trade network (5600 shops).

Scientific Potential

Kyiv is one of the biggest scientific Centre of Europe. Located here is the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the majority of its institutes, many of which have world renowned schools of research. Concentrated in the city is 30% of the country's scientific potential: 216 scientific research and 48 design institutes, as well as 18 leading higher schools of learning of Ukraine.

Kyiv takes first place among all cities of Ukraine as to the number of higher educational establishments of the III-IV level accreditation (49 institutes).

Over 15 hundred inventions and production prototypes are registered in Ukraine's capital every year.

Foreign Economic Activity

Kyiv is a leader in foreign trade and attraction of foreign investments.

The export volume of goods and services in Kyiv amounts to 12.6% of the total volume of Ukraine's export. The city's enterprises produce many types of competitive products on the world market: aircraft, vessels, excavators, lathes, chemical goods, food products, metal structures, textiles and jewelry products.

The city occupies first place as to the volume of imported goods and services (26.5% of the national volume).
The production potential of Kyiv allows to increase both the export capacity of its enterprises, as well as organize the domestic production of products to replace imports.

Kyiv occupies first place among the regions of Ukraine as to the volume of foreign investment (almost 30% of the total volume of foreign capital investment in Ukraine). The development of business ties with foreign companies is conditioned by the favorable investment climate as listed below:
· Municipal authorities are paying a great deal of attention for creating good working conditions for foreign companies;
· Kyiv is a well planned city located in the heart of Europe, has a nice climate, favorable conditions for living and working;
· Criminal situation in the city is rather calm;
· Transport facilities connect the city with all cities of Europe and Russia;
· The city has a unique scientific potential;
· Kyiv has a significant, relatively cheap job market, represented by highly qualified specialists in almost all sectors of the economy.

Volume of foreign investment
as to regions of Ukraine

Kyiv
Kyiv Oblast
Dnipropetrovsk Oblast
Cherkasy Oblast
other regions

Support to Small and Medium Business

Approved in Kyiv has been the City Program for developing small enterprises, which will make it possible to create a competitive market, increase the significance of this sector of economy, the living standards of the people and essentially increase revenues to the local budgets.

Historical and Cultural Reference

Kyiv is one of the oldest cities in Europe. The city's history dates back to more than 1500 years.

The development of Kyiv as a city is connected with the evolution of the ancient feudal state Kyivan Rus. Historical documents testify that Kyiv was the Centre of the development of Rus, and the city always played a prominent role in the development of the Slavonic people.

Kyiv had its heyday during the reign of Volodymyr Svyatoslavych (980-1015). The introduction of Christianity in 988 played a significant part in the consolidation of the state and its influence on the international scene. From that time on Christianity becomes the official religion of the early feudal state of the ancient Slavs which lead to the development of political, cultural and dynastic ties with the Byzantine Empire, Bulgaria and other states of Europe and the Middle East.

From 1019, Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise, who sat on the throne in Kyiv for several decades, promoted the development of culture and education. Yaroslav had family ties with many monarchies of Europe. He daughter Anna became the Queen of France. In 1031, Yaroslav built the grand St. Sophia Cathedral in honor of the victory over the Pechenegs and in 1051 he built the Pechersk Lavra, which became a Centre for confirmation of Christianity in Rus. Both are an adornment to Kyiv today. Besides, the mentioned structures, others were also built: the Desyatynna Church (989-996), Uspensky Cathedral (1073-1078), and many architectural monuments which are famous today.

The first code of laws, entitled Russia Pravda (Russian Law) was drawn up during the reign of Yaroslav the Wise.
During the reign of Volodymyr Monomakh (1113-1125), Kyiv became one of the biggest centres of civilization in the Christian world. The city had a population of over 50,000 (at the same time there were some 30,000 residents in Novhorod, the second largest city in Rus; the population of London, Hamburg and Gdansk was 20,000). Kyiv was one of the most developed artisan and trade centres of Europe.

During the time of the Russian Empire Kyiv was the Centre of one of the largest and economically strong province - Mala Rus (Little Russia).

After the fall of tsarism, three government replaced one another from 1917 to 1921 in the independent Ukrainian State which was thorn into parts by civil war. On January 22, 1918, the Ukrainian Tsentralna Rada (Central Council), headed by the well known historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky, proclaimed independence in Ukraine; after the Tsentralna Rada was dissolved, the reigns of power in the country were taken by Hetman Petro Skoropadsky on April 28, 1918, and in December of that same year power was taken over by the Directory Government of Simon Petlura and Volodymyr Vynnychenko.
In Soviet times, Kyiv was the capital city of the Ukrainian Republic, the second largest in the state as to economic, defense and scientific potential.

Today, Kyiv, the capital city of independent Ukraine is a Centre of political life. Situated here are the residence of the President of Ukraine, the Parliament (Verkhovna Rada) and Government (the Cabinet of Ministers), as well as headquarters of the majority of political parties and organizations. There are close to 100 embassies and many foreign missions in the city.

The city is the largest economic and industrial Centre of Ukraine.

There are 393 general education schools in Kyiv with an enrolment of 369,700 pupils. 97 hospitals and 267 outpatient clinics at which some 20,000 physicians work.

The capital of Ukraine can boast of a big cultural potential: 29 museums, 39 theatres, 67 cinema theatres, and a significant number of permanent art exhibitions. The most well known of the museums are: the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, the Museum of Ukrainian Fine Arts, the Museum of Eastern European and Oriental Art. Besides, there are 2093 edifices regarded as monuments of history, culture and architecture.

Financial Activity

Kyiv is the financial Centre of Ukraine. The headquarters of 18 of the 30 largest Ukrainian commercial banks are operating in the city. 75% of assets of commercial banks in Ukraine are held by 5 capital banks.

Registered in the city are 70% of investment funds and companies of Ukraine. 12 of them are included in the list of the 20 country's largest. Located in the city are almost 40% of the insurance companies of Ukraine, which account for 41% of the insurance premiums .

The size of the accounts receivable of Kyiv enterprises is one of the largest and makes up 16.5% of the volume of Ukraine. Accounts receivable exceed account payable by 395.6 million hryvnia.

The above information was obtained from a CD-ROM entitled "Ukraine - A look to the 21st Century" published by the Regional Business Center (RBAC), Kharkiv. Copies of the complete CD-ROM can be obtained from either CEI or RBAC.

Kyiv

Facts and Figures How to get there

The above information was obtained from a CD-ROM entitled "Ukraine - A look to the 21st Century" published by the Regional Business Center (RBAC), Kharkiv. Copies of the complete CD-ROM can be obtained from either CEI or RBAC.

Page last updated: January 19, 2004.