About Odessa

The region occupies the territory of the north western Black Sea Area from the bed of the Danube river to Tiligulian estuary (the sea cost within the limits of the region stretches for 300 km and northwards from the sea for 200-250 km). The general area of the region territory makes 5.5% of the territory of Ukraine that almost equals the dimensions of the Republic of Moldova territory (33 400 km ).

The region position on the seacoast and near the state frontier is the basic peculiarity of its economic and geographical distribution.

The region broad bordering on the Azov- Black Sea basin and on great river mains: the Danube, the Dniester, the Don and the Dnieper determines its great advantages and transport potentialities. Effective water routes (the sea and river ones) permit expanding economic relations of the region with Eastern and Central Europe (along the Danube river). The Odessa port and other ports of the region are distributed in the junction of intensive marine and river transport international relations and this determines its considerable transport distribution potential.

  Fresh lakes the Kagul, the Yalpug, the Katlabukh, the Kytai and salt ones: the Sasyk, the Alibei, the Burnas, the Budatske, the Stragany are distributed in the leftbank of the lower Danube and in the valley bed and the Dniester estuary, salt estuaries of Khadzhibey and Kuialnik, known for their medicinal muds, are distributed in the eastern part of the region.

The region belongs to the zone of intensive steppe arable farming with developed irrigation. Its coastal part lies in the recreation zone of the northwestern part of the Black Sea area, being distributed in the vicinity of the large industrial districts.

The northern part of the region is distributed in the forest steppe and southern one in the steppe zone. Ordinary and southern humus prevail in the soil of this region part. The average annual temperature varies from +8.2C in the north to +10.8C in the south. The vegetation period lasts from 180 to 210 days. The average annual precipitation varies from 340 mm in the south to 460 mm in the north. Natural conditions are favorable for growing the winter wheat, maize, barley, millet, sunflower. Sugar beet may be grown in the northern and central zones, grapes, in the southern one. These conditions are of essential influence on regional specialization and with respect to peculiarities of rural settlement influence on the territory organization of agricultural production.

The determining peculiarity of the nature resource potential of the region consists of the great and diverse recreation and resort abilities: favorable climate, the sea, medicinal mud and brine of estuaries, sandy beaches, mineral water, historical and cultural values.

Minerals, being of practical interest today, are represented by the building mineral raw materials.

History
Systematic population and economic development of the Odessa region territory began in the early 19th century. Until the mid 30s the migration movement was mainly connected with agriculture but quick growth of the cities and a decrease of the state lands reserves strengthened the role of non agricultural migration to cities.

A necessity of economic development of the land, rich for agroclimatic resources and properly distributed both in economic and geographical respects, made the government distribute the land plots both among the native and foreign settlers (Germans, Bulgarians). Their settlements were distributed in the sea regions (Kominternivske, Ovidiopol, Bulgaivka districts) as well as in the Ismail district. The settlers created their okrugs (districts), they received the right of "foreign colonists" and privileged conditions of settlement.

In the early 19th century the Northwestern Black Sea area performed the functions of transit territory the Ukrainian grain being exported through it.

Owing to its unique economic geographical position Odessa had turned into the major Ukrainian grain export port. Even in the middle 19th century it exceeded the Petersburg port as to the cargo turnover volumes.

The construction of railways in the territory of the present Odessa region was the extremely important factor which favored the economical development and population of the land. This factor essentially improved the transport geographical position of Odessa and (together with the availability of various kinds of agricultural raw materials) exerted a decisive effect on quick development of the defense industry in the city. At the end the 19th century there were almost 500 industrial enterprises in Odessa which employed 16 000 workers. They built the wool spinning mills, developed production of ropes. fishery, wine making, flour grinding production, agricultural machine building. The seaport also quickly developed.

The labor power supply had a decisive influence on the growth of urban settlements and port centres. Little urban settlements appeared along the trade roads. They became the local grain trade centres. Different handicrafts as well as plants and enterprises (Balta, Ananiiv. etc.) began developing in them. In the early 20th century Odessa was characterized by the dense population under relatively sparse network of urban and rural settlements.

On February 27, 1932 the Odessa region was created as a part of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1956 it also incorporated the territory of the former Ismail region.

Nowadays the region unites 26 rural districts, 18 cities ( 39% of those in Ukraine), including 6 cities of regional subordination, 12 district towns, 33town type villages, 1 143 rural settlements.

Historical and geographical peculiarities of the region territory population have determined the formation of the districts with compact settlements of a number of national groups: Bulgarians, Moldavians and Gagausians).

Industry
The Odessa region is a highly developed industrial region of Ukraine, whose industry plays a considerable part in the structure of national economic complex of Ukraine. The enterprises of machine building and metal working, chemical and petroleum chemical, food and light industries and other branches are distributed over its territory.

Among the interbranch formations the peculiar place belongs to they machine building complex. The machine tool industry is the most developed branch in machine building production. It is presented by the enterprises involved in production of metal cutting tools, press forging plants.

CSC "Odessa Plant of Radial Drilling Tools" is distinguished among four plants producing metal cutting tools. It is the only plant with series production of diamond boring, coordinate boring, radial drilling and honing machines.

The Odessa plant "Tsentroplit" is the only enterprise in the Ukraine south, a producer of castings of ferrous and nonferrous metals for machine building. It is the largest producer of ferrous metals in the Southern region. Together with steel making shops of machine building enterprises plant "Tsentrolit" presents the metallurgic base of machine building in the Odessa region. CSC "Stalmetiz" makes metalwork, steel low carbon wire, steel ropes, welding electrodes, etc.

  The enterprises of road construction machine building incorporate OSC holding company "Krayan" producing cranes on pneumowheels, OSC "Plant BOM" and SE "Budgidravlika" producing hydraulic drives for building machines (cranes, graders, bulldozers, excavators), hydropumps, pneumopunching devices, mosaic grinding machines.

OSC "Odessa Machine Building Plant "Chervona Gvardia" is the only enterprise in Ukraine producing mine winches for coal and mine industry, reductors for the tower cranes and lifts.

Production of oxygen equipment for gas flame processing of metal, oxygen devices and equipment (compressors) is concentrated at OSC "Kysen'mash". Cryogenic equipment and compressors for domestic and industrial refrigerators are produced by the lease scientific production association "Odeskholod" and OSC "Machine Building Production Association "Orion".

The equipment for flour grinding, backing and milk industry is the basic production of people's enterprise "Prodmash" and OSC "Odmez".

 Unique blueprinting machines are produced by OSC "Odessa Plant" "Poligrafmash". OSC "Odessil'mash" produces tractor ploughs, machines and harrows for soil working in the gardens and vineyards.

Automobile building and production of equipment for automobiles and tractors is well developed in the region (CSC "Odaz", "Odessa Plant of Piston Rings").

OSCs "Electronmash", "Tochmash", plant "Kinap", the only in the region OSC "Odeskabel" belong to the instrument construction enterprises.

There is a rather developed network of repair productions of the machine building complexes: plants on repair of agricultural facilities and equipment (the cities of Odessa, Ismail, Bolgrad, Kotovsk), machine tool repair plants (st. of Borshchi, the cities of Balta and Odessa), repair of domestic appliances and equipment for the light and food industry (Odessa), production of metal reinforcements for the building (the cities of Odessa, Bilgorod-Dniestrovsky), locksmith's work, metal containers and packing covers, castings, etc.( the cities of Ismail, Odessa, Artsiz).

Food industry occupies the leading place in the structure of commodity products. The food branch of the region includes sugar, oil fat, fruit canning, hydrolysis agar, wine making, tea industries and production of food concentrates.

The meat, milk canning, liquor vodka, confectionery, beer and soft drinks, tobacco industries play an essential part in the intraregional production complex and in the export/import relations.

Light industry plays a considerable part in the structure of industrial production. Production of technical (mainly jute) fabrics, clothing articles (mainly male and female outerwear) and umbrellas are among the most important branches. The cotton, wool, leather and fur industries play a subsidiary part. Service functions are characteristic of the footwear and knitting industries.

Aggregated branches of medical industry are presented in the region: manufacturing of pharmaceutics products and drugs (Odessa), medical facilities (the cities of Odessa, Bilgorod-Dniestrovsky), medical facilities of plastic materials ( the cities of Odessa, Bilgorod-Dniestrovsky). Veterinary instruments and equipment are produced at OSC "Impulse".

Chemical industry and forestry enterprises produce mineral fertilizers (Odessa Port Plant, the town of Yuzhne), varnish dye products (the city of Odessa), products of domestic chemistry and plastic articles (the city of Odessa), rubber technical articles (Odessa), cellulose and cardboard (Ismail), furniture (the cities of Odessa, Balta, Kotovsk), woody and building parts (the city of Odessa).

Among the enterprises of building material production there are the leading plants on production of bricks, cement, natural wall materials, iron and concrete articles and constructions. The work of these enterprises is based on the local resources. These are as follows: CSC "Odessa Cement Plant", CSC "Pik" and OSC "Olexiivka Plant of Building Materials (wall limestone blocks), OSC "Bilgorod-Dnietrovsky Experimental Plant of Porous Concretes and Articles", OSC "Odessa Keramsite Plant", OSC "Illichevsk Plant of Iron and Concrete Articles", etc.

Some enterprises, directly not connected with the local mineral resource base (Linoleum Plant 'Bilshovyk" and OSC "Integrated Plants of Roof Materials"), play an important role at the international level within Ukraine.

Agriculture
Agriculture is the branch of material production occupying the second place as to the volume of production and employment. It gives employment to 35% of population, concentrates above a half of production funds, produces 42% of the gross national product, 80% of consumer goods, forms almost 50% of the region budget.

The land stock surpasses 3,300,000 ha including 77.6% of agricultural lands: arable lands making 80.2% of them, haying lands and pastures-15.1%, fruit and berry -4.4%. Practically all the productive lands are allotted to their users involved in agricultural production.

The area of agricultural lands has been reduced in the recent years and makes 0.98 ha per capita which is by 25% more than the average allotment in Ukraine; they include 0.78 ha of arable land. The estimate of lands in the region is above the average republican level.

The region specific weight in the total volume of gross agricultural product of Ukraine is above 4.5%, grain almost 7%, sunflower -11%, grapes -33%.

The agro industrial complex of the region incorporates 1,322 enterprises and organizations of all forms of property and management.

Agricultural production incorporates 819 enterprises, 5 328 private farms and individual subsidiary small holdings.

Grain production and cattle breeding with developed growing of sunflower, grapes, poultry farming and swine breeding make the main trend of the productive agricultural specialization of the region .

In the structure of gross product of agriculture the specific weight of certain kinds makes: grain 18%, technical cultures 6%, including sunflower (almost 4%), cattle and poultry 23%, milk 15%.

Transport and Communications
The Odessa region has a branched network of motor roads connecting the regional Centre (Odessa) with the district centres, settlements of the region and with other regions of Ukraine.

The sea and river transport enterprises are organizationally represented by the State Shipping Company "The Black Sea Shipping Company". The Ukrainian Danube shipping Company, State Shipping Companies "Ukrferri" and "Ukrtanker", "Ukrainian Sea Shipping Company", seven commercial sea ports: Odessa, Yuzhny, Illichivsk, Bilgorod- Dniestrovsky, Ismail, Reni, Ust'-Dunaisk.

Until 1991 the Black Sea Shipping Company included the shipping company itself, sea ports and ship repair plants separated as completely independent economic subjects. The sea shipping companies practically perform the functions of cargo and passengers carriers.

State shipping company "Black Sea Shipping Company" and stock company "The Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company", with their material technical base and the amount of transporting work, remain the leading ones among the shipping companies of Ukraine.

The sea ports are the state property enterprises. They are a part of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine and administratively subject to the State Department of the Sea and River Transport of Ukraine.

The Odessa, Illichivsk and Yuzhny ports, remaking about 20,000,000 tons of cargo, are the largest ones.

The Odessa port has 37 wharves 4.2 km long and takes ships with the draught of 11.5 meters. It also has an oil harbor which can remake 12,000,000 tons of oil products a year.

The Illichevsk port has 27 wharves 4.1 km long and takes ships with the draught of 13 meters.

The Yuzhny port has 8 wharves 2.1 km long and takes ships with the draught of 13 meters.

The Bilgorod-Dnietrovsky has 8 cargo wharves 1.1 km long. Because of small depths the port can take the ships with dead weight about 5,000 tons.

The Danube ports: the Ismail, Renian and Ust'-Danube ports, annually remaking 7,000,000 tons of cargo, have 50 wharves 5 km long and can take ships with the draught of about 6 meters.

The marine economic complex of the region also includes 5 ship repair plants: Odessa SRP "Ukraina", Odessa SC "SRP-2", Illichivsk SRP, Ismail SPR and Kiliysk SRP.

The railway transport complex includes the Odessa state enterprise on carrying cargoes and passengers of Odessa railway and Odessa interbranch enterprise of industrial railway transport.

The length of the main operating railway line within the region makes 1 100 km, 300 km of them being electrified.

The city telephone communication in Odessa as well as in the cities of regional subordination counts 339,000 users, in the rural locality 52,500 users.

The telephone exchanges of various modifications are used among technical means: decade-pitch, coordinate, electron, quasi-electron, digital exchanges with the capacity of 416,000 numbers.

The mobile cell radiotelephone communication is presented by joint Ukrainian-Dutch-Holland-German venture "Ukrainian Mobile Communication" (UMC), which technical systems operate in two frequency ranges: 450 MHz and 300 MHz (NMT system; JSM), using 22 base exchanges. The object power makes above 4 000 users. The city provision with the given kind of communication makes about 95%. In 1998 it is foreseen to establish additional base exchange in the city of Odessa, in a number of the region settlements as well as to provide complete communication on the highway Odessa-Kyiv.

Foreign Economic Relations
The Odessa region is the only in Ukraine, member of the Assembly of European regions and Labor Concord of the Danube States. Active part in the work of committees, commissions and sections of the foundations favored the creation of positive image of the region among European partners, the Odessa region was given a special right to be a head of the Labor Concord of the Danube States in 1996-1997. This permits the region to develop more actively the cooperation with the countries of the Danube region and to take part in international programs, financed by the European states, to make propositions to the Council of Europe and other international organizations.

The region cooperates and has partners' relations with the regions of Romania, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Germany, Japan, Russia, Republic of Moldova, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan.