Belarus: Investment prospects of Gomel City

Gomel is one of the most ancient cities of the Republic of Belarus.

Gomel was first mentioned in the chronicles in 1142. This year is considered to be a starting point of the city history: it was at this time that the name “Gomiy” was referred to in the official history of the Kievan Rus for the first time.

On January 15, 1938 the Gomel Region was

 formed, Gomel city acquired the status of the regional center.
Gomel today is the second largest city in the Republic of Belarus, a social and a political center of the interregional connections between Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine, with a developed infrastructure industry, science and culture.

Gomel is the biggest complex transport nodal point on the south-east of Belarus, where the railway, car and air lines cross, connecting Gomel with Moscow, St. Petersburg, North Caucasus, Kiev, Crimea, Odessa, Brest and with the Baltic trading ports – Klaipeda, Kaliningrad and others.
The territory of the city is 13,1 thousand ha, the population is 498,7 thousand including economically active people – 259,7 thousand.

There are 4 administrative districts in the city: Zheleznodorozhny, Novobelitskiy, Sovetskiy and Centralny.
The economic potential of the city is made up by 126 industrial enterprises, 69 building organizations, and 23 transport, communication enterprises, 8 specialized enterprises providing domestic services and 3777 small business companies.

As on the 01.01.2009 there are 23 394 registered market participants, including 5601 legal persons and 17 793 sole traders in the city.

A high density of the industrial enterprises, a developed infrastructure and qualified labor force set conditions for a gradual growth of the real economic sector and the social sphere.
The main fields of the Gomel industrial complex structure are: machine-building and metal processing (50.5% of the overall city production volume), chemical (14.6%), food and processing (16.9%), forest, pulp and paper and woodworking (4.7%), building materials production (7.2%). These industry fields form up almost the entire foreign turnover of the city.

The city produces fodder and grain harvester combines, metal-working machine tools, glass and glass empties, starting engines and radio equipment, building components, furniture, cable, chemical fertilizers, footwear and knitted wear, meat and dairy products, confectionary, diamond processing products.

The biggest industrial enterprises of the city: Republican Unitary Enterprise “GOMSELMASH”, Public Joint Stock Company “GOMELSTEKLO”, Public Joint Stock Company “GOMELOBOI”, Public Joint Stock Company “KOMINTERN”, Public Joint Stock Company “GOMELSTROYMATERIALY”, Branch of Republican Diamond-Processing Unitary Enterprise “Gomel Production Association “KRISTALL”,  Public Joint Stock Company “GOMELDREV”, Public Joint Stock Company “GOMEL CHEMICAL PLANT”, Joint Venture Public Joint Stock Company “SPARTAK”.

The advantageous geographical position of the city helps to promote friendly and mutually beneficial connections with foreign partners. Gomel has the second largest foreign turnover in Belarus, after its capital – Minsk.
The Gomel city has a share of 33% export and 30% import transactions, carried out by the enterprise of the region.
In 2008 the foreign turnover volume was 2.2 billion USD, which is 56.6% greater than in the previous year.

Gomel upholds friendly and business relations with many world cities. At present, Gomel has 13 twin-cities: Bryansk, Protvino, Kursk, Surgut, Krasnoselskiy and Vasileostrovskiy districts of St. Petersburg (Russia), Donetsk, Chernigov (the Ukraine), Burgas (Bulgaria), Liepaja (Latvia), Radom (Poland), Aberdeen (Great Britain), Clermont-Ferrand (France), Huai’an (China).

Gomel is one of the leading regional centers of the Republic according to the volume and growth rates of the investments into fixed capital.

The key positive feature of the city investment climate is the consistency of its investment potential, which provides a constant and growing interest of investors.

In 2008 the volume of investments into fixed capital has grown for 46% in comparison with 2007 and amounted to over 1368.2 billion rubles.

At present a number of large-scale investment projects with participation of foreign capital is realized at the enterprises of the city.

90 market participants were granted foreign investments in 2008. The main investor countries are: Great Britain, Russian Federation, Austria, Germany, Cyprus and USA.

The Free Economic Zone “GOMEL-RATON” is functioning in the city, aiming at expansion of trade and economic cooperation with foreign countries, building up export potential and attracting investments into innovative technologies.

The service industries in Gomel are well-developed.
The retail trade and public catering network of Gomel city is represented by 1169 shops, exhibition halls, trade centers with a total trade area of 144.5 thousand  sq. m. and 472 public catering facilities for 34.1 thousand places.

Passenger transportations in Gomel are carried out by means of 183 buses operation on 38 routes, 180 trolleybuses – on 20 routes, 392 automobiles (fixed-run taxies) of the private carriers on 27 routes.

There are 47 post offices, 5 departments and 2 post centers on the city territory.
In the health care sphere there are 18 hospitals with a capacity of 8175 beds, 13 adult outpatient departments and 7 children’s polyclinics, 7 dental clinics, tubercular clinic, specialized center of eye microsurgery, early stage pediatrics, hematology and others. On the basis of medical and preventive institutions there exist 9 departments of Gomel State Medical University.

Great attention is paid to the training of specialists in various branches of national economy, culture and science.
The city educational system includes 7 higher educational establishments, 28 educational establishments providing professional training and specialized secondary education, 117 nursery schools, 76 secondary schools.

Gomel City is considered to be one of the most beautiful Belarusian cities, where one can find more than 180 historical and cultural monuments. The palace and park ensemble of the Rumyantsev and Paskevich Princes is a unique architectural monument of the 18-19 centuries, a true symbol of the city, a favorite place of Gomel citizens and an important tourist attraction.

Gomel is included in the “Golden Ring” of Gomel region - the main tourist route of the south-eastern region of Belarus.

Gomel is among the greatest cultural centers of Belarus. About 20 festivals, 1500 concerts, 180 art exhibitions take place in Gomel every year.

More than 80 cultural establishments work in the city: drama and puppet  theatres, experimental youth theatre-studio, circus, philharmonic society, public and cultural center, 9 cultural palaces, local history museum, 18 libraries, 3 cinemas, city methodical center, symphonic and brass orchestras, 7 exhibition halls and galleries.

In the sport and physical culture sphere there are Ice Palace with 2 ice rinks, 2 sports centers, 8 stadiums, 18 swimming pools, 212 gyms, 46 shooting gallery, 561 sports grounds, 40 children’s and youth sports schools.

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