By KYIV. May 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Mykolaiv has lost approximately 90% of its business during the Russian full-scale invasion, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych has said.
“There are almost no production facilities in Mykolaiv. So, all enterprises have closed, many enterprises have relocated. Today, the city survives solely on the military personal income tax. But after the end of the war, a situation may arise that we will stop receiving this personal income tax, and there will be no new funds from our taxpayers will be,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the high-level meeting “Covenant of Mayors in Ukraine: planning sustainable development together” in Lviv on Wednesday.
In his opinion, in order to avoid the decline of the territories most affected by the war, it is necessary today to use mechanisms to stimulate investment.
“Today, in those regions that have suffered the most destruction and which are most risky today due to their proximity to the border, it is necessary to create special economic areas or something similar in order to cover the risks for those investors who want to enter with economic, tax instruments that allow them to earn. Only then will investors return, and local ones too,” the mayor of Mykolaiv said.
In addition, he said today it is necessary to work on preparing the workforce for future industries.
“The biggest problem for any investor is the workforce. Today, we already need to work with local communities to train this workforce. In order to make it so, they built the enterprise in a year or two, and they already have workers waiting in line,” Senkevych said.
In his opinion, people will also return to Mykolaiv if they see an opportunity to earn money, restore their housing and living standards.
At the same time, the mayor of Mykolaiv said he does not yet feel the support of such an initiative from the government.
“Not yet. But, I hope, it will be in the near future,” Senkevych said.
The Covenant of Mayors is the world’s largest climate and energy movement, launched in the European Union in 2008. Now the initiative unites 11,000 local and regional authorities in 55 countries of the world. To date, almost 300 Ukrainian communities have joined this climate movement and developed 180 action plans aimed at solving energy and climate problems. Signatories of the Covenant of Mayors in Ukraine have pledged to reduce CO2 emissions by over 25 million tonnes per year.
