View of one of industrial sites in Ivano-Frankivsk from aboard a plane. As all of the round table participants agreed, efficient use of regional airports facilitates investment activities in regions
On July 4, 2007, in Kyiv the USAID LED project organized a round table on Development Opportunities and Ways for Regional Airports in Ukraine. Participants in the event – representatives from regional authorities and heads of airports in Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Poltava, Rivne, and Sumy, as well as a speaker from the Czech Republic – considered how to turn these predominantly lossmaking enterprises into a regional development resource and a source of revenues to local budgets.
Ret. Lt. Gen. Ladislav Klíma, former Commander of the Czech Air Force, shared a positive experience in developing regional airport in Pardubice, Czech Republic. According to Mr. Klíma, East Bohemian Airport a.s., in which the city of Pardubice has a 100 percent interest, over the last five years has managed to increase the annual number of passengers nearly 40 times: from 1,814 in 2001 up to 71,655 in 2006.
Chernivtsi International Airport Director Oleksandr Tsybrov, Rivne International Airport Director Viktor Yakobchuk, and Vinnytsya Oblast State Administration Economy Department Head Andriy Hryshko in their presentations demonstrated that certain recovery of their airports’ activities was observed only in 2004, probably because of the presidential elections. The situation is also aggravated by the unfavorable legislation and lack of interest in regional airport development on the part of the state.
However, local governments have been lately showing increased attention to local airports, reasonably seeing in them a possibility to enhance the investment appeal of their regions. Presenting an investment project on Transport and Logistic Terminal Development, Mr. Yakobchuk said he believes that the Rivne airport development strategy lies in a combination of cargo customs terminal, aircraft maintenance hangars, logistic center, and passenger terminal. He also suggested that the latter could be used as a new bus station as well, which the city badly needs. All of these components require a serious investor, and the city is ready for the advent of such investor, he said. As their competitive advantages, representatives from Rivne cite very convenient location of the airport and perfect condition of its runway.
Unlike Rivne, Chernivtsi has found internal reserves and intend to finance reconstruction of their runway from the city budget, according to Mr. Tsybrov.
Winding up the discussion, LED Project Chief of Party Howard Ockman said this round table can be viewed as the first step in collaboration of the project with local governments aimed at helping regions to use their existing airports more efficiently, thus contributing to an increase in general investment activity in the region. All round table participants agreed that the two things are interrelated.
The idea of such a round table sprang up in the process of economic development strategic planning carried out in oblast capitals with assistance from the LED project. As experts from the project noticed, the regional airport efficiency problem was common to all of these cities. That is why the project decided to organize exchange of experiences and consultations between Czech and Ukrainian professionals.
