Business Research, a well-known British-German consulting and information agency, published a regular rating list of the world’s most expensive cities. It has an interesting section titled “Most Expensive Cities for Starting and Conducting Business,” and BR’s latest study points to Kyiv, followed by Minsk and placing Moscow third.
British Research experts attached a sizable commentary on the Ukrainian and Belarus capitals, perhaps because both are not exactly famous centers of world business. Western businesses are explained first the whereabouts and then provided selected information on the cost of services and average expenses involved in the opening of a new firm or office. Being expensive or not is determined using 16 parameters (e.g., hiring a bilingual secretary, computer communication charges, transport, housing, accommodation of employees, etc.)
Interestingly, leasing office space by foreigners in Kyiv is considerably more expensive than, say, in Paris. Single fees exacted by bureaucrats more than double the cost of processing in Berlin or Stockholm. To top it all off, there is an example: a glass of whiskey at a Ukrainian bar costs five times more than in any given four-star hotel in Switzerland. So what kind of foreign investment can we expect?






