Almost 40% of businesses relocated from the frontline areas are based in Transcarpathian Region. These figures were voiced in an interview with LB.ua by Viktor Mykyta, Deputy Head of the Presidential Office for Regional Policy, who was the head of the Transcarpathian RMA before being appointed to the Office.
"There is no final figure for relocation, because everyone counts in their own way. There is a part of the business that relocated through the Ministry of Economy, and some registered in a new way. We counted those who came after the large-scale invasion, non-local businesses - both those that relocated and those that registered.
...As far as I know, there are about a thousand relocated companies across Ukraine, and we have 400. That is 40%," said Mykyta.
According to him, word of mouth worked best when business owners told their colleagues and friends about successful cases of production relocation.
"We counted the top 20 companies [in Transcarpathian Region], and 15 of them are relocated companies. That is, we are talking about Ukrainian business in general, which has moved and become profitable. This is primarily the business that was able to reorient itself to European markets," the OP representative said. In particular, these are garment factories, a Kharkiv-based company that produces plastic manhole covers and paving stones, and Centravis, a company from Dnipropetrovsk Region that is contracted with BMW and other automakers and works with technology that is patented only in Ukraine.
The relocated companies have changed the economic profile of the Region, the deputy head of the OP noted.
"A mechanism has been launched that is producing results every day. The people who have come are high-quality, skilled workers, who were not in Transcarpathian Region," says Mykyta. And the income tax that goes to the regional budget increased by 298% in 2024 compared to 2023, which is three times as much.
In addition, the official adds, about 300,000 internally displaced people have moved to Transcarpathian Region. Another 200-300 thousand Ukrainians visited the Region during the tourist season. In total, more than 10 million Ukrainians travelled through Transcarpathian Region on their way abroad and returning.