Most attractive regions for investors in Ukraine

Kyiv City, Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions are the most attractive Ukrainian regions for investors, the head of the Expert RC rating agency, Volodymyr Dukhnenko said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday.

He was presenting the results of the rating of investment attractiveness of Ukrainian regions. He said that Kyiv ranked first in the rating as in 2005, and Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions follow it. "Dnipropetrovsk region surprised us this year, as it increased its potential from the average to a high level and cut risks from higher to average. This allowed the region to enter the top-three," the expert said. Luhansk region was in the sub-leader category of regions. Last year, Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions were in this category. Kharkiv, Odesa, Lviv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Zaporizhia regions, Crimea and Sevastopol are in the category of regions that are basic for the Ukrainian economy. Cherkasy and Rivne regions joined the group of regions, Dukhnenko said. Kirovohrad region has become an outsider region this year. Last year, it was Khmelnystk region.

Regarding the rating method, Dukhnenko said that its peculiarity is that the potential and risks of each region are examined in combination. He said that the agency understands the investment potential as the opportunities each region has to attract investment. The region could have good potential, natural resources, enough labor force, but it could have high risks linked to social, demographic, ecological and criminal problems.