Korosten welcomes investors and tourists
How to revive Polissia, a Ukrainian territory with little natural resources, let alone adequate living standards, considering that 25 years ago it suffered from the Chornobyl nuclear disaster? Those interested in answers to this question ought to visit Korosten, a town once known as Iskorosten, the Derevlianians’ largest town and the center of their land. To use medieval heraldic Latin, its motto reads Immune ut Incendia (Immune to Fire), and seems to give Korosten the energy to enhance its economic and tourist potential.
I was personally convinced after attending the Chornobyl Economic Development Forum held in Korosten, among whose participants were domestic and foreign business people, investors, as well as city mayors from many regions.
“Our town accommodates 20 big industrial and about 1,000 small businesses, set up over the past ten years. More than one hundred of these are involved in foreign trade,” said Korosten Mayor Volodymyr Moskalenko (recently elected to the post for the fourth consecutive time).
According to the mayor, this town, with a population of 65,000, has attracted investments worth millions of dollars.
Moskalenko says this isn’t a breakthrough but the result of painstaking, planned efforts, made over a number of years; the investment process has allowed Korosten to accommodate large new manufacturing businesses, including Entertainment (specializing in ceramic granite, revived by investments and technologies provided by Italian companies). Investments from Israel have helped with plastic component production. Trubostal, Korosten’s first steelworks, registered 80 million hryvnias’ worth of output this year, placing second in local rankings. The pharmaceutical factory Elfa ranks with the largest businesses in this field, specializing in toiletry; its products are sold in Ukraine and beyond. Astafe is known for its quality construction materials.
Moskalenko says that over 1,000 jobs were created in Korosten last year. He believes this is an encouraging statistic, but wants to do better, considering the town’s 2.9 percent unemployment rate — low but still one of the mayor’s headaches.
He believes this problem will be solved by a 2005-14 strategic action plan, worked out by the Mayor’s Office over two and a half years — subject to public debate, instead of being adopted behind closed bureaucratic doors.
“We received Spielberg-like draft projects reading what measures were to be taken to build what and where. Our focus groups analyzed them and came up with their findings,” says Moskalenko.
These findings boiled down to measures to be taken by the residents of Korosten to put an end to their poverty, and the mayor stressed the need to help develop small and medium businesses, as well as what had to be done by the municipal authorities to this end. The result was very impressive: tenfold small and medium business growth, totaling at 456, with 14 percent of the populace in their employ.
After the strategic action plan they started working on an urban development master plan, largely to do with zoning and normative and monetary evaluation of land [plots]. This master plan provides for an industrial estate of 230 hectares (in place of a former airfield), designated as an industrial park, following the developed countries’ example.
They did more than just name the area. An adequate asphalt road was built, along with water, gas, and electricity supplies. In the end, they didn’t have to wait long for investors. Those who visited found the whole project promising, so much so the newly established business, having first leased then bought 70 hectares, retained its logo (best translated as Industrial Park, Ltd). This company proceeded to establish a production facility specializing in medium-density fiberboard (MDF), laminboard, and plastic laminated sheets. These investments amount to 120 million euros. Work on the project started toward the end of 2008, a year marked by the global financial crisis. Difficult conditions notwithstanding, the company has made headway and is in the equipment adjustment phase. The first production section will be launched early next year. It looks like there is substance to Moskalenko’s repeated statement that Korosten keeps its door open for investors.
Ksenia Sydorkina, USAID/Ukraine-Links Project coordinator, assessed Korosten’s progress and said that this town can serve as an example to be emulated by all of Ukraine, of how to use land resources and “make the land work.”
Together with other journalists, I was given a guided tour of Ukraine’s first industrial park and workshops of the world’s most advanced businesses (in the field) by Deputy Mayor Oleksandr Dzyha. When asked about the social importance of the new facility, he said that there would be 350 well-paid jobs made available, by tentative estimates, and that the company’s payments to the social funds would provide for 400 pensioners.
However, both Korosten, leading the post-Chornobyl revival process, and Zhytomyr oblast as a whole, are still tagged as contaminated areas. This, of course, slows down the investment process, hence the current emphasis on the rebranding of the region.
In response to The Day’s question, Ihor Orlov, deputy head of the Zhytomyr regional state administration, said that this is Ukraine’s fifth largest administrative unit, albeit with perhaps the lowest population density, what with 11 out of 23 raions having been subjected to compulsory resettlement. Also, the 1986 nuclear disaster is still affecting people’s health. According to Deputy Governor Orlov, no cases of children’s cancer were previously registered in the oblast, particularly in Korosten, and now there is a children’s department of the regional diagnostic center, due to the high local chronic disease rate: “…seventy-five percent of the children who reside in the contaminated areas are suffering from chronic diseases.” He also insists that the time has come to reassess the condition of the soils and restrictions imposed on their usage after 1986. He believes these restrictions are slowing down local socioeconomic progress, having a negative effect on the living standards, with most residents being unemployed, having to make do with their token allowances and social payments as Chornobyl survivors. Orlov is for allowing farming on territories with a registered significant radiation contamination decrease, for this will give an impetus to the revival process already underway. He says practically every previously abandoned home and apartment building in Narodychy is occupied, that people keep returning to their homeland. There is even a waiting list for the children’s daycare center accommodations, listing some 200 names. Marcin Swiecicki, director, UNDP Blue Ribbon Analytical and Advisory Center, adds that “Korosten is a graphic example of how the local authorities’ good performance can provide conditions for individual business in the [post] Chornobyl region. It is necessary to work out a new brand for these territories, avoiding any reference to Chornobyl, as it is bad for business. The fact remains that this is Polissia and we insist on referring to it as such. This will help provide competitive job placements, as is convincingly shown by the example of Korosten.”
In conclusion, mention should be made of the excellent natural park by the River Uzh in Korosten, with the river following its winding scenic course amongst rapids and boulders. This masterpiece of craftsmanship was created to commemorate Korosten’s 1,300th anniversary. The project was carried out without any financial aid from the state (contrary to official promises), with funding from three local sources: citizens’ donations, business contributions, and municipal budget appropriations. The whole project was meant for the younger generation and posterity. Today, newlyweds visit the monuments to the heroes of Nestor the Chronicler; there are guided tours on a steadily upward annual curve — doubtlessly owing to the mayoral office’s efforts, considering that Korosten has of late been accommodating national and international festivals, publishing tourist brochures. Among these events is the famous deruny potato pancake festival. I might as well add that any guest to the city can not only taste this delicious dish, but also learn how to cook it, along with learning merry folk songs about deruny. These and other projects can help revive Polissia.
