Additional material. Ukraine has a developed economy with strong industry and agriculture

Economy of Ukraine

Ukraine has a developed economy with strong industry and agriculture. In the 1990s Ukraine began changing its economy from the one owned and controlled by the government to an economy based on free enterprise. In this kind of economy, individual owners and managers run their own businesses.

Ukraine's heavy industries produce iron and steel and such machines as tractors, machine tools and mining equipment. Ukraine also produces cars, buses, railway carriages, airplanes. It manufactures chemical fertilizers, sugar, canned foods. Ukraine is a producer of consumer goods, including TV-sets, washing-machines, refrigerators, clothes and footwear.

Ukraine is famous for its agricultural production and is known as the breadbasket of Europe. Its moderate climate and rich black soils have made the country one of the world's most productive farming regions.

The major crops grown here are wheat, sugar beets, corn, potatoes and sunflowers. Ukrainian farmers also raise beef, and dairy cattle. Near cities farmers often grow fruits and vegetables to sell at markets.

Ukraine is a leading producer of nickel, manganese which is used in making steel. Huge coal deposits lie in the Donbas, the centre of Ukraine's heavy industry. Ukraine also mines iron ore, natural gas and other resources. Coal, natural gas and petroleum have long been important sources of electric power in Ukraine. During the 1980s nuclear power plants began providing an important new source of energy. Today these plants produce about a fourth of Ukraine's electricity.

Ukraine has a well developed transportation system. A huge railroad network connects major cities and industrial centers. Ukraine's highways include about 147,000 km of paved roads. Kyiv, Kharkiv and some other cities have underground systems.

Service industries employ more than a fourth of Ukraine's workers. The country's chief service industries include education, scientific research and engineering, health care, transportation and trade.

Ukraine's major trading partners are the Russian Federation, Poland, Hungary, Canada and Germany. Ukraine imports oil, natural gas, wood products and consumer goods. The USA chief exports are wheat, sugar beets, coal, construction equipment and manufactured goods.

The economic reforms, started in the national economy after the proclamation of independence, were aimed at the establishment of an open market-type structure. Ukraine had to be transformed from planned-centralized to market-controlled economy. The reforms in the spheres of economics and property still continue. It is especially actual nowadays because today's industries are unable to satisfy consumers' needs. The possible reasons are the unwillingness to accept progressive techniques, outdated and worn-out production equipment and so on. These and other problems are to be solved in the course of new economic reforms, aimed at creating an open effective market-type economy.

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