The city of Dnipro is to build an industrial park, Innovation Forpost, on 61.4 ha with UAH 2.7 billion in investment, the Dnipro Development Agency has said.
“All procedures for Innovation Forpost industrial park blueprints were completed in July 2018. A total of UAH 2.7 billion in investment will be raised for the industrial park within five years, 9.93% of this amount is planned to be taken from the city’s budget, 9.45% from the state, the rest of the financing are funds of investors and the management company,” Director of the Dnipro Development Agency Volodymyr Panchenko told Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Deputy Mayor of Dnipro Jaanika Merilo, Innovation Forpost will be located 4 km from the city center on an area formerly owned by Interpipe’s plant. The park will house offices and R&D centers, an exhibition complex with an innovative science museum, a HypeUA testing site, business incubators, training campuses, residential blocks with a kindergarten, a hotel and green areas.
Panchenko adds that the development of transport and engineering networks will begin in October 2018. Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2019, and the first facilities of the park will be put into operation by the end of the year.
“The first facilities of the industrial park will be the front office of the industrial park, the Industrial EXPO exhibition center, offices and the prototyping center as part of the business incubator, urban amenities,” Panchenko said.
According to him, the agency is preparing separate investment projects and investors are being selected under each of them.
“We already have requests for four project sites in the production area, companies come from the innovation sphere. For example, today one company plans to produce commodities by printing products on 3D printers. There are also investors interested in building an expo center on 12,000 square meters. A trade and service area is an attracting project too,” he said.
The Innovation Forpost project envisages the construction of new buildings (production and office buildings, maintenance complexes) and the reconstruction of existing ones. For example, the foundry is planned to be transformed into exhibition art space.
According to agency, the park will create 5,000 jobs.
“For us, this site is one of ten that we plan to launch in Dnipro. Investors have Ukrainian and foreign roots. It is wrong to think that they do not want to invest, it’s just necessary to create favorable conditions,” Panchenko said.
According to him, not only budget funds and private investment but also grants can be used to finance a project. In particular, the Dnipro Development Agency this year has won two European grants worth UAH 22 million.
The Plank Electrotechnic plant, the manufacturer of the modern electrical systems, part of the conglomerate UFuture Investment Group belonged to businessman Vasyl Khmelnytsky, will start operating on the territory of the Bila Tserkva industrial park this autumn. “This autumn we will get a plant that will produce products. They will be used not only in Ukraine, they will be exported to Europe, since we will build all the plants to meet the European standards,” Khmelnytsky said in an interview with the Crocus local television channel posted on the Facebook page of the businessman.
According to the website of UFuture, on the average, Plank Electrotechnic is to produce 4.6 million units of electrical fixtures and other electrotechnic products per year. Some 50 jobs would be created at the first stage, and later with the development of the cluster – up to 300 jobs. The electrical fixtures market in Ukraine is estimated by the company at UAH 500 million a year. Ukrainian electrical fixtures and other electrotechnic products will boast excellent European quality and competitive value.
According to the posting on the UFuture’s website, the launch of the plant will be the launch of the new cluster Plank, an innovative production cluster that allows efficient cooperation and development of enterprises from various industries that use high-tech polymers and composites in production.
The enterprises forming this cluster will become the first production facility located in the Bila Tserkva industrial park. They will produce electrical, construction and machine-building commodities made of advanced materials.
“Now Ukraine lacks domestically produced goods with the use of engineering polymers and composites, especially advanced ones,” the group said.
At the second stage, production will be launched at the cluster that will employ the method of extrusion of reinforced pipes for water supply and heating systems, installation boxes and skirtings of various sizes. Also, pultrusion technology will be used to produce composite fittings, profiles and mesh made of fiberglass.
All cluster plants will operate under a single quality control and design system, with one supplier of materials as well as raw materials.
Separately, it is planned to develop the logistics capacities of the cluster – a specialized warehouse for the storage of plastic and composite primary granules will be built.
The cluster is ready to cooperate with Ukrainian enterprises and international companies operating in the segment of production of plastic masses, polymers and composites. Cooperation can include both the lease of production capacities in the industrial park area and joint investment in the development of similar projects in Ukraine.
“Our closest plans are to start building three or four plants this year and in three or four years to build 20 plants,” Khmelnytsky said.
In April 2018, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry placed the Bila Tserkva industrial park in the register of industrial parks. In October 2017, Ukrainian entrepreneur and philanthropist Vasyl Khmelnytsky has put his business projects and social initiatives under one umbrella brand, UFuture Investment Group. It incorporates UDP developing company, as well as Bila Tserkva industrial park, UNIT.City and LvivTech.City innovative parks, UDP Renewables.
BILA TSERKVA, INDUSTRIAL PARK, INVESTMENT GROUP, PLANK ELECTROTECHNIC PLANT, UFUTURE, VASYL KHMELNYTSKY
China’s Anhui Conch Cement Company Limited is interested in building a cement plant, a construction materials park and investing in tourism. The press service of the Odesa Regional Council reported that the issues were discussed at a meeting of Chairman of the Odesa Regional Council Anatoliy Urbansky with representatives of Chinese business. A delegation from China included the commercial consul of the General Consulate of China in Odesa, representatives of Anhui Conch Cement Company Limited and the Ukrainian branch of China Metallurgical Construction Engineering Group Co., Ltd. The Odesa Regional Council expressed its readiness to consider all investment proposals of Chinese businessmen.
China Metallurgical Construction Engineering Group is a large company in China. It is involved in construction of industrial and civil facilities in China and abroad. Anhui Conch Cement Company Limited produces and sells cement and commodity clinker. Its products are exported to over 20 countries, including the United States and the EU.
