Despite the armed confrontation, small business is successfully developing in Donbass. This was confirmed by the exhibition-presentation "East-Expo 2017", which was held in Kiev on September 12-13, reports Deutsche Welle. More than a hundred enterprises from the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions controlled by the Ukrainian authorities brought their products to it..
The exhibition hall of the CCI of Ukraine is crowded and noisy. The stands are full of variety: solar panels, clay pots, thermal underwear, 3D printers, fertilizers, designer clothes, salt lamps, electric motors, building materials, natural sausages and selected seeds and much more directly from the threshold striking visitors. Some of them are pleasantly surprised.
"Is there still a business in the Donbass? I thought there was only war, idle factories and mines. Do you really work there? ", - one of the visitors asked a woman who kindly treats all the cheese. "We not only work, but also develop," she replies with a smile. This is Lyudmila Yurina. In 2014, after the transition of Donetsk under the control of pro-Russian separatists, she and her family moved from there to Kramatorsk, which is 100 km from her home town.
It was then, recalls Yurin, before her the choice arose, the further to be engaged. "In Donetsk, I took care of a private garden, in Kramatorsk no one needed my services. I started everything from scratch, I found a recipe for cheese on the Internet and decided to try to make for myself. It turned out delicious, bought more milk, cooked for friends, they also liked. So we had an idea to make our own cheese factory, "- says Lyudmila.
Implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which allocated a grant for the purchase of equipment for the cheese factory. Now Yurina sells its cheeses all over Ukraine, the whole family participates in business. "We issued more than 500 grants to support such ideas in the east of Ukraine. The more an entrepreneur hires people, the higher the grant amount. We teach them business strategies, legislation, so that they work in this difficult region and flourish, "explains UNDP director in Ukraine Iantomas Himstra.
According to him, this project, with the support of the governments of Japan and Poland, UNDP began in 2015, during this time, giving Ukrainian entrepreneurs in the Donbass more than $ 4 million. "The conflict imposes certain restrictions. Under normal conditions, a businessman simply goes to the bank and takes a loan. But an entrepreneur from the Donbas is unlikely to get it. Therefore, our role is to support these sprouts of business at the initial stage, so that a person does not ask for help, and gets up on his own, "- said Himstra.
Before the conflict, Donbass was a successful industrial region, where the main resources and production assets belonged to the oligarchic business empires. Now in this region, Kiev is betting on small business. "We are concentrating on the Ukrainian" kulaks ", which are the core of democracy. And we consider small and medium business not so much in the economic as in the democratic plane. But while this democratic platform is not enough. Now 93% of the gross domestic product of Donetsk region produces a large business and only 7% - small and medium-sized enterprises, "- says the head of the Donetsk military civil administration Pavel Zhebrivsky.
Small entrepreneurs are ready to work more actively, but complain that starting their own business in the region is not so simple. Ilya and Anastasia Lazarenko from Svyatogorsk engaged in the cultivation of trees and flowers for landscape design even before the conflict in eastern Ukraine. During the active phase of the fighting their trading platform was completely destroyed.
Last year, the couple invested the last money in restarting the business. "But we counted the tax on land - 17 thousand hryvnia with fines - for the last three years, although we did not work because of the fighting. We asked to write off these taxes, because we could not work, but we were told that we are only writing off invalids. A strange approach, "believes Ilya.
Yevgeny Pavlovsky from Slavyansk has another problem. Pavlovsky, who produces clay tandyrs, says his business suffers from a prejudiced attitude toward the Donbass, because, in his words, some in Ukraine think that the Donbas and the east in general are something terrible and deserted.
"People do not believe that we have a transport connection, and we can deliver the goods to any point. Also afraid to come to us for talks, "- adds Eugene. But he found a way out of the situation - he sells his goods abroad. His tandyrs are in good demand in Belgium and Britain. "We in the Donbass never lose optimism," smiles the man..
Also believes in himself and Vadim Lyubchenko from Severodonetsk, Lugansk region. He several months ago registered a road repair company using recycled asphalt and already has orders for the year ahead. However, there is nobody to fulfill them. "We live 30 km from the line of contact. Most of the men divorced: who is in Kiev, who is in Russia, who is in Poland, so it is necessary to work on a par with his employees without days off and leave. You need to do roads, "Lyubchenko is sure.
All these entrepreneurs, believe that by opening their own business, they not only feed the family, but also do something more.
"We realized that no one is obliged to give anything to us. To some extent, each of us is responsible for what happened in the Donbass. Now we are helping, than we can - we are making a quality product and thus we are building a new Ukraine, "emphasizes Lyudmila Yurina. After the question, does she believe that someday she will start selling her cheeses in her native Donetsk, the woman's eyes filled with tears. "Faith in this and saves us, gives the strength to develop and move on," - concluded Yurina.