About three hundred and twenty thousand unemployed are officially registered in Ukraine. Such data are given by the State Statistics Service. Almost fifty unemployed apply for ten vacancies. The journalists of “ZI” learned about the situation with employment in Pokrovsk, and what is being done in the city to create new jobs.
Unemployment in a small town
Despite the fact that the employment service regularly conducts training and retraining of its staff, the problem with finding jobs in Pokrovsk still remains. “During the year 2017 there were registered over 1,500 unemployed, over 1,000 people of which were employed.” – It was announced by the director Nikolay Tolmachov. – “Since the beginning of this year, three hundred unemployed people are registered in the City Employment Center of Pokrovsk.”
The statistics of the employment service does not change significantly from year to year. About two hundred people come here for help, approximately every month. Some people become employed, some are trained in other specialties or they are defending business projects in order to start their own business.
In general, there are fifty thousand vacancies in the region for three hundred and forty thousand resumes. These figures are showed at the official website of the Donetsk Regional Employment Center. In addition to government agencies, there are other sites to find work. For example, the resource Work.ua offers sixty free vacancies for three hundred and odd placed resumes in Pokrovsk.
Based on the abovementioned data we can conclude that the competition in the labor market in the city and the region is about 6-7 people per workplace.
Technopark as a driving force for the development of the community
One of the ways to create new jobs and attract investment for the development of Pokrovsk was the creation of an industrial park. This decision was made by the deputies of the city council a few months ago. The land is located along Agrarnaya Street in the area of the former dairy and has an area of forty two hectares. According to the specialist of the Department of Architecture Natalia Baranovskaya, there are all necessary communications on the site.
“There is a high-pressure gas pipeline, a water pipe and electricity. This site is most suitable for attracting business projects and investments,” – Natalia Baranovskaya said. In order to support the creation of an industrial park Ruslan Trebeshkin,the Mayor said: “The city will get additional jobs and taxes that will fill the city budget.”
The process of decentralization approached the approval of the development plan for the joint territorial communities. Although Pokrovsk’s community does not officially exist yet, the city is already looking forward to the future. One of the “chess moves” was the allocation of land for the establishment of an industrial park.
Which investor is ready to take risks, and what's the point?
Are Ukrainian or foreign companies ready to invest in the development of Pokrovsk and what will give the opening of such a park to the ordinary residents?
Despite the pessimistic calculation, the expert does not deny the positive impact of the creation of the technopark: “Of course, it is a good filling of the budget and creation of jobs, which would lead to an improvement in the life and well-being of the population for the future.”
Industrial Park is a novelty for Ukraine
At the moment, there are about thirty industrial parks in Ukraine. One of them, the largest one, is located eighty kilometers from Pokrovsk. We are talking about the newly created Industrial Park which is called Pavlograd. This technopark occupies two hundred and fifty hectares of land.
According to the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, the industrial park will help create about five thousand new jobs, attract more than $ 370 million to develop the region's industry and gain extra revenue for the budget of all levels. Technopark is divided into seven sectors in accordance with the profile of production, which can be placed there.
Many countries, which are more economically developed, have opted for creating technoparks. For example, Turkey has almost three hundred industrial parks; about 30% of China's economy is in free economic areas. Poland has more than eighty industrial parks and almost two dozen free economic areas.
Learning how to turn negatives into positives
Let’s consider a successful example of technopark development, which the Poles created instead of an unprofitable mine. Depressive mining town was forced to seek new sources of existence. So in 2004 the “Technopark Gliwice” appeared.
Only ten years have passed, and on the site of the once unprofitable coal enterprise a whole scientific and industrial town appeared. The fact that Gliwice has one of the most powerful polytechnic institutes in Poland also helped. Students of a polytechnic have become the driving force for the development of new technologies.
Today, about fifty IT companies operate on the territory of Technopark Gliwice; over two thousand jobs were created on its basis. Instead of losses, the city received a source of powerful income, which brings two million euros net profit to the budget annually. Another important point: young people are not hurry to leave the city now, but seek to realize themselves in a small homeland.
Pokrovsk’s chances to apply the Polish experience
Pokrovsk is inferior in population to Gliwice, but we have a similarity with the Polish city. It is Donetsk national technical university, which was evacuated from Donetsk because of the beginning of military operations; now it is located on the basis of the former Krasnoarmeysk Industrial Institute.
Students of DonNTU already created several start-ups; there are interesting developments among them. In particular, saving of street lighting, product for applicants, which will help to choose the right profession and portable device for people who need care.
The experience of European countries suggests that the creation of technoparks is a serious support for entrepreneurship and an anti-crisis economic settlement. This is exactly what Pokrovsk needs, as one of the cities in the ATO zone.
Therefore, the future industrial park will not only help to solve the problem with jobs, but will also develop the community. Moreover, within the walls of the technical university there is a generation of serious scientists ready to work for the good of the city and country.
