Regional aspects of the development of light industry in Ukraine

Abstract

Light industry is one of the basic strategic segments of national economy, providing 5% of budget revenues and 2.6% of Ukrainian merchandise exports. The purpose of the article is to develop proposals to stimulate the development of light industry in Ukraine on the basis of an assessment of the dynamics of its performance at regional level in the context of main results of production and foreign economic activity. The results of the analysis of production activity in the light industry showed the relative stability of the structure of sales volumes in Ukraine, in which in 2018 clothing production accounted for 41.91%, textile production – 35.64% and leather production – 22.45%. The regional structure of domestic light industry remains little diversified. Export potential of light industry of Ukraine is mainly concentrated in two regions – Lviv (25.48%) and Transcarpathia (17.75%). The peculiarity of Ukrainian exports of light industry goods is the high proportion of finished goods made of toll materials. Hence, the priority task for ensuring the development of domestic light industry is to restore (with further increase) the raw materials production for textile and other industries in Ukraine. To solve this problem, it is necessary to create or modernize the facilities for processing wool, flax, industrial hemp, cotton, as well as for production of artificial and synthetic fibers that should be concentrated in regions with favorable conditions for their cultivation and harvesting. These are the mountainous regions of the Carpathians (wool production), as well as Ternopil, Volyn, Polissia, Kherson and others. The organizational form of implementation of such initiatives should be the creation of agro-industrial parks that operate based on the activities of large and medium-sized enterprises for production and processing of raw materials for needs of light industry. On the other hand, cooperation is a promising form of stimulating the development of small agricultural enterprises (small farmers or individuals).