UKRAINE NEEDS A NEW INDUSTRIAL PARK DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY. PART 1.
• What is the experience of successful countries in the world in the creation of industrial parks?
• Why does Ukraine need industrial parks?
• How can they help boost the economy, attract foreign investors, support local producers, promote small and medium-sized enterprises, launch new technology projects, etc.?
The Wall Ukraine has prepared answers to these and other questions in a special series of publications.
To begin with, we will tell you in more detail what industrial parks are. Wikipedia, the familiar to us, gives a simple explanation – this is the territory allocated during the planning of the city for industrial development. That is, these are special industrial territories, as a rule, with the provision of enterprises with a common developed engineering and transport infrastructure. In addition, it offers manufacturing and research enterprises a set of necessary services, simplified regulatory procedures and a package of investment incentives.
These parks are often set up around ports, airports, railways and other transport hubs to reduce transport costs. Often the creation of industrial parks is carried out within the framework of economic development programs, and certain benefits are provided to enterprises in them.
There are many types of such parks. The founders can be both the state, municipalities and private entities. Their special function is to create and implement innovations faster and better.
The first industrial parks were created in Western Europe and the USA in the late 19th – early 20th centuries.
The first in the world to open was Trafford Park, which was founded in 1896 by the Shipcanal and Docks company in Great Britain, near Manchester. In the USA, the first industrial park appeared near Chicago in 1907 In 1951, the first industrial park in Asia appeared in Singapore.
Despite more than 100 years of history, industrial parks are useful in the modern world as a tool for economic development.
More than 15 thousand industrial parks function in the world. They became a factor in the accelerated economic development of Western Europe and the USA 50-100 years ago, Asian countries 30-50 years ago, Eastern European countries and other successful countries such as Turkey 10-20 years ago.
In Ukraine, the development of industrial parks began only in 2012. The start was given by the bill “On industrial parks”. On the part of the state, the Ministry of Economy is responsible for industrial parks. And the situation is critical. Imagine, in 2015, not a single industrial park in Ukraine was included in the Register of industrial (industrial) parks. And as of 05/01/2020, only one industrial park is included in the Register.
Ukraine has a huge potential for enhancing industrial development through the mechanism of industrial parks. So we can change for the better the key macroeconomic indicators: GDP, investment, employment, income, output, product exports, and the like. Therefore, they adopt the experience of the advanced countries of Europe, America and Asia. We will talk about them in detail in the next thematic publication.