Odesa

Odesa Oblast is located in the southwest of Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea. The administrative centre of the region is Odesa city.
Vinnytsia and Kirovohrad regions border Odesa in the north, Mykolaiv in the east, Moldova in the west, and Romania in the southwest. The length of the coastline reaches 300 km, and the state border stretches for 1200 km. The region has eight seaports, over 80,000 hectares of vineyards, and five of the largest lakes in Ukraine. Odesa Oblast is located 474 km from Kyiv. It has an international airport “Odesa”.
Odesa Oblast is administratively divided into 7 districts, 19 cities, 33 urban-type settlements, and 1122 villages.
By specialization of production, Odesa is the main maritime foreign economic link of the country; serves international transit cargo flows and passenger flows; is one of the most promising regions of Ukraine in terms of the development of foreign economic activity, joint entrepreneurship, the formation of special (free) economic zones; has significant scientific and technical and design and construction potential; is one of the most promising recreational regions of the seaside type for the development of tourism; stands out as an important region of intensive agriculture; is one of the centres of mechanical engineering, light and chemical industry on a regional and national scale.
Regional GDP was 7.6 billion USD (4.96% of Ukraine’s GDP), FDI stock was 1906 million USD (main foreign investors are CRH, Risoil S.A., HYS Enterprise, HHLA, DP world, Group Atlantic and Guris) and export was 1.4 billion USD (3% of Ukraine’s export).
Branch specialization: processing of agricultural products, research and development (agriculture).
Natural resources of the region: limestone, kaolin, granite, sand, and oil.
There are 31 universities and 9 technical schools in the region. The leading universities are the Mechnikov Odesa National University, the Odesa Maritime Academy National University and the Odesa Law Academy National University.
The unemployment rate in the region was 7.2% (average in Ukraine 9.9%) and the average salary was 474 USD (average in Ukraine 430 USD) in 2021.