Sumy

Sumy Oblast is located in the northeastern part of Ukraine. The administrative centre of the region is Sumy city.
In the northeast, the region borders Bryansk Region (Russia), in the east – with Belgorod and Kursk Regions (Russia), in the southwest – with Poltava Region, in the south – with Kharkiv Region, in the west – with Chernihiv Region. Seven main rivers flow through the territory of the region, the largest of which is Desna. Sumy region is located 334 km from Kyiv, 199 km from Kharkiv Airport and 744 km from Odesa Seaport. It has Sumy airport and international roads E-38, E101, E381, E391 and M-02.
Sumy Region is administratively divided into 5 districts, 15 cities, 20 urban-type settlements, and 1458 villages.
The main types of industrial activity of the region are: chemical engineering, pump and power engineering, agricultural engineering, instrument building and radio electronics, production of technical equipment for processing fields of agro-industrial complexes, mining and iron ore industry, printing industry and drug production, oil and gas processing, chemical production, production of film and photo materials, production of chemical fertilizers.
Regional GDP was 2.9 billion USD (1.91% of Ukraine’s GDP), FDI stock was 624 million USD (main foreign investors are Kusum Pharm, Technologia, Gualapack, Mondelez, Grain Alliance), and export was 0.9 billion USD (2% of Ukraine’s export).
Industry specialization: food products, chemical products, high technology engineering.
Natural resources of the region: oil and gas, amber, building materials, peat, phosphates, and sand.
There are 7 universities and 8 technical schools in the region. The leading universities are the Sumy National Agrarian University, the Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A. S. Makarenko, and the Sumy State University.
The unemployment rate in the region was 10.1% (average in Ukraine 9.9%) and the average salary was 375 USD (average in Ukraine 430 USD).