The Batiovo rural municipality, Zakarpattia oblast, was among the municipalities that received the expert support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme in the development of investment passports. At the end of 2022, this strategic document was ready, and the municipality began to implement it at the beginning of 2023.
“An investment passport is a tool that will allow us to attract new investments in the future and strengthen our economic capacity,” said Gabriella Galambosh, deputy head of the municipality.
Batiovo is a border municipality. It is conveniently located at an international transport corridor — Crete Corridor V — and is near the borders with Hungary, Romania, Poland and Slovakia. Batiovo has a population of more than 12,000 and includes 9 settlements.
In 2021, the municipality made its first attempts to independently develop an investment passport. The help of U-LEAD experts allowed them to obtain the necessary knowledge and mechanism for developing the document.
According to Gabriella Galambosh, during the process, they managed to single out the priority directions of development, namely logistics and production, including the creation of logistics hubs. In addition, they plan to develop recreational opportunities and agriculture and do not rule out the possibility of building industrial parks.
“The analysis revealed that we have a good resource in warehouse facilities. We are ready to work on attracting businesses for cooperation. Some facilities are privately owned, but we can work together on their repair, reconstruction and further investment attraction,” she said.
There are logistics centres already operating in the municipality. In wartime, the development of logistics hubs is a priority. That is why experts of the Batiovo Village Council are developing projects and working on promoting their facilities.
There is a junction railway station in the village of Batiovo, there is a good transport connection, the M-25 road of international importance, and in the territory of the municipality, in the village of Horonhlab, there is a checkpoint on the border with Hungary. The Batiovo Station is a powerful railway junction in the western region of Ukraine with significant strategic importance: it is a link to European countries that facilitates passenger and freight transportation.
The municipality is actively working on obtaining the 3rd approval from the Ministry of Infrastructure to create a production and transshipment hub on its territory. They are also inviting relocated businesses. Support in finding housing and other assistance is provided for this.
“Batiovo has a quality background for attracting investments. The municipality has a progressive, transparent and effective local self-government, an effective system of providing administrative services, an understanding of development priorities, a well-developed infrastructure and available free land plots that can be allocated to businesses. The Investment Passport is one of the investment attraction tools that the municipality has developed with the support of U-LEAD, but I know for certain that they are not going to stop here. And we are committed to supporting them on the path of development,”, said Mykola Siusko, Head of the Regional Office of U-LEAD with Europe in the Zakarpattia oblast.