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  • Writer's pictureOleksii Kushch

Chernihiv region as a mirror of the frontline

There are interesting statistics for Chernihiv region.


Despite the risks of war, more than 90% of people have returned, and now the region is home to 50 thousand fewer people than before the war.


Officially, in 2021, there were 1 million people.


But it is difficult to say how correct this basic figure is.


The birth rate has dropped by 30%: before the war, about 5,500 children were born a year.


95% of enterprises have resumed operations.


In 2023, the industrial production index was 122, an increase of 22%.


But here again is the case of a low comparison base, which I am writing about.


But compared to 2021, in 2023, production reached only 80%.


There has been a significant decline in vacancies, a third of which are at the minimum wage or so.


Business grant activity is low - just over 200 small projects.


There are relatively few officially unemployed - only 4000 people.


Up to 9,000 worked for the “Army of Recovery”.


This once again confirms my theses that I have formulated a long time ago:


1. Despite the war and the risks, people are returning from relatively safe areas in the west of the country to their socio-cultural groups in the east.


2. Life in the border regions does not stop, as many people in Kyiv think.


3. Business needs systematic state support:


- status of territories with a high level of business risks;


- state guarantees for loans and interest rate compensation;


- insurance against military risks;


- preferential labor tax rate;


- additional payments to families with children and pensioners;


- centralized children's recreation in safe regions at the expense of the state.


4. Assistance to businesses in connecting critical infrastructure.


5. State guarantees for the sale of products through state orders; transfer of products of regional enterprises to the local population as humanitarian aid at the expense of the state budget.


So far, only 200 grants have been issued out of all the above and the population has been partially employed in recovery programs.


It is not enough, very little for people living in the risk zone, many of whom were also affected by the Chernobyl disaster.

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