4. Factors of production
Economic resources are scarce relative to the limitless needs and wants of people and businesses operating in the economy. It is important to use these resources efficiently in order to maximize the output that can be produced from them.
They are combined in various ways to produce goods and services. Since these resources go into the creation of goods and services, they are called the factors of production. Each factor of production has a place in the national economy, and each has a particular function.
Traditionally, economists have noted four factors of production: land, labour, capital, and entrepreneurship.
Land or natural resources are the things provided by nature such as soil and minerals that are used in the creation of products. The price paid for the use of land is called rent.
Some nations are rich in natural resources and develop this by specializing in the extraction and production of these resources, for example, the development of the North Sea oil and gas*.
Air, sunshine, rainfall are classified as free goods since consumption by one person does not reduce their availability for others – free goods do not have an opportunity cost. One major resource is for the most part free – the air we breathe. The rest are scarce, because there aren’t enough natural resources in the world to satisfy the demands of consumers and producers.
Labour is the human input into the production process. Economists distinguish between the physical and mental efforts that people put into the creation of goods and services. The price paid for the use of labor is called wages. Wages represent income to workers, who own their labour*.
Not all labour is of the same quality. Some workers are more productive than others because of the education, training and experience they have received. The amount of labour will depend ultimately on the population of the country (or the world, if people can immigrate), and on the number of people who are available to work. Those in school, those retired, too handicapped to work*, mothers who stay at home with their children are not part of the labour force.
Capital goods or capital as it is commonly called are man-made goods (or means of production) which are used in the production process. Capital or physical capital refers to the machinery, tools*, roads, factories, and buildings which individuals have produced in order to produce other goods and services. A modern industrialized economy possesses a large amount of capital, and it is continually increasing. Increases to the capital stock* of a nation are called investment. Investment is important for the economy to achieve its economic growth.
To an economist, capital has another meaning. It is the finance raised to operate a business whereas business people refer capital to money they can use to buy factories, machinery and other similar productive resources. Payment for the use of someone else’s money, or capital, is called interest.
So, economists distinguish between physical and financial capital.
Entrepreneurship is the willingness of business owners to take risks of introducing new products and services to the market. It is the managerial or organizational skills needed by most firms to produce goods and services. Because of its essential role in initiating the process of production, entrepreneurship is determined by some economists as a "fourth factor of production," along with land, labour and capital. Entrepreneurs are people who bring together the other three productive resources to make goods and services. The success or failure of a business often depends on the quality of entrepreneurship.
The reward to entrepreneurs for the risks, innovative ideas and efforts that they have put into the business are profits, whatever remains after the all production costs have been met, in other words, entrepreneurs make their payments to the owners of land, labor and capital.
Today, information is identified by economists as the fifth factor of production because it has become vitally important nowadays. Information means facts and figures about markets and competition that are often stored on computers and are accessible immediately. This is a computer age, and business cannot compete without information about markets, financial and other important business conditions.
3. MICROECONOMICS VS. MACROECONOMICS
We have already known that economics deals with the problems of scarcity and choice that face all the societies and nations throughout history. But it must be admitted* that the development (progress) of modern economics began in the 17th century. Since that time economists have developed methods for studying and explaining how individuals, businesses and nations use their available economic resources.
So, what is economics? There are many various opinions concerning economics, but, in general, economics is the systematic study of choosing which goods and services will be produced and consumed to satisfy society’s wants. Since economics involves interactions among members of society it is a social science that studies the behaviour of people in producing, distributing, exchanging, and consuming goods and services. Understanding economic behaviour and the ways in which economic activity is organized and coordinated are at the heart of economics.
The discipline of economics is divided into two interrelated branches: macroeconomics and microeconomics.
Microeconomics is the study of individual consumers and business firms who make choices on such matters as what to buy and what to sell, how much to work and how much to pay, how much to borrow and how much to save. Microeconomics focuses on how individuals and firms behave, how they interact in the market, and how these interactions establish a price and allocate scarce resources. Microeconomics is not used to determine how a specific individual will act, since it examines how an “average” individual will probably behave under a specific set of conditions. It tracks cause-and-effect relationships that influence choices of individuals, businesses and society and is concerned with issues such as scarcity, choice and opportunity costs, and with production and consumption. Principal emphasis is give by microeconomists to the study of prices and their relationship to any economic units.
Macroeconomics is the study of the economy as a whole. Macroeconomics seeks solutions to macroeconomic problems such as how fast the economy is developing, how employment can be increased, what can be done to increase the overall output of goods and services, how much total income is, how inflation will effect economic growth and how different governmental policies can be used to stabilize the level of business activity in the economy. Macroeconomics looks into the total effect of individual choices on the overall productive efficiency of the economy reflected by such economic indicators as the nation’s price level, total output, and level of employment. Macroeconomics concentrates on determining the overall effect of decisions made in the system.
Just as the whole consists of the sum of its parts, the economy is ultimately driven by individual choices. Thus, an investigation of the big picture – of economic aggregates* such as unemployment and inflation – must begin with an understanding of the individual choices behind those aggregates.
Everyone should realize that economists deal with two worlds: the “world that is”, and the “world that ought to be”. Economists have developed and generally agree on basic economic principles and economic models that try to explain or describe the “world that is”. In many cases, however, economic issues cannot be solved with theories and models alone. Solutions to these problems include opinion, politics, and personal values.
Economists make a distinction between positive economics and normative economics. To the economists the positive-normative distinction is useful because it helps people with very different views about what is desirable to communicate with each other.
For example, economists can use basic principles like the laws of supply and demand and simple economic models to predict that the price of coffee in Ukraine will go up after a freeze destroys much of the coffee crop abroad. This assertion is called positive economic statement. The assertion like “something ought to be done about the high rate of unemployment” is a normative economic statement.
Positive economics looks at/on the facts and the economy as they actually are, avoiding value judgements* and attempting to seek scientific bases about economic activities. It is an approach that deals with “what is” rather than* with “what ought to be” and includes no indication of approval or disapproval. What are the causes of poverty in the country? What will be the effect of higher cigarette taxes on the number of smokers? These questions can be solved only by reference to facts. Notice that a positive statement can be wrong. “The moon is made of green cheese” is incorrect, but it is a positive statement because it is a statement about what exists. Thus, positive economics is used to analyze what is, what was, and what will happen when one activity is performed instead of another activity.
Normative economics, on the other hand, is concerned about what ought to be. It comprises ethical precepts and value judgments* about whether economic policies are good or bad. Normative economics is used to take decisions as for issues of equity, equality, and fairness, since these concepts include judgments about what ought to be. Normative economics attempts to show that one activity is better than another activity. “The world would be a better place if the moon were made of green cheese” is a normative statement because it expresses a judgment about what ought to be. Notice that there is no way of disproving this statement.
Should the government give money to poor people? Should the budget deficit be reduced by higher taxes or by lower spending? There are no right or wrong answers to these questions as they involve ethics and values rather than facts. Thus, these issues can be debated, but they can never be decided by using facts. These questions are solved by political decisions, not by economic science.
Since most assertions are not easily classified as purely positive or purely normative statements, they must be combined to make a good policy statement. One must decide what goals are desirable (the normative part), and choose a way of attaining those goals (the positive part).
2. SCARCITY AND CHOICE: THE ECONOMIC PROBLEM
The older we become, the better we understand that we can’t have everything. If we spend more on lunch we have less to spend on dinner. If we live in the country, we enjoy the beauties of nature but we spend more time to get to university or work. If a business produces advertising materials, it can’t publish scientific journals with the same resources. If a government spends more on modern medical facilities, it has to limit costs on improvements of roads. So, it means that everyone through their lives has to make choices from among the things they would like to have.
Most of the things we want or need are goods and services. Economists call them economic goods since they are scarce and have value to people. Other goods are not scarce – air, seawater, and sunshine – and called free goods. They are useful to people and available at no cost.
Since most of the things are scarce all economic units, namely, individuals, families, businesses and governments, have to choose as to how to allocate and use them. Choices made by individuals and families depend on the size of their personal income, savings, wealth and ability to borrow. Business enterprises and firms, in turn*, are limited by their profits, savings and borrowing power, and governments by their taxing and borrowing power.
The necessity to make a choice results from the problem of scarcity of available resources. For most people, scarcity is a fact of life. Scarcity means that individuals as well as societies want more than is available. If people desired nothing, there would be no scarcity. If resources were great enough to produce more than anyone desired, there would also be no scarcity. Economists say that there is no limit to the amount and kinds of things that people want but there is a limit to the resources, available to satisfy unlimited human wants. Thus, the problem of scarcity faces all people, businesses, governments.
Having limited financial resources school leavers can choose a full-time or part-time job as they can’t afford to get a university degree*. Business owners cannot hire all the workers and buy all the equipment and raw materials they require. Governments face some scarcity of finances despite their power to tax. Therefore, scarcity forces all levels of decision makers*, from individuals to society, to do their best to get the most from what they have.
The essential sense of scarcity is that everything we do has value. When you are doing one thing, you are using time and resources that cannot be used for the next most valuable thing you could have been doing*. The cost of doing more of one thing, then, is the value that is sacrificed by doing less of something else.
Economists refer to the value that is forgone every time we do something as opportunity cost. In fact, all costs are opportunity costs. We commonly think of cost as the money we spend to obtain something. But spending money on one thing is giving up the opportunity to spend it on something else.
For example, you have been dreaming of buying a windsurfing and at last you have accumulated enough savings to purchase it. But hydro cycle has become a thing of your dream, too. But you cannot afford to purchase both desired things as you simply don't have enough resources, namely, money. To the economist the choice you will make is a trade-off. Trade-off means that the decision to have one thing is, at the same time, the decision not to have something else.
Let's consider the cost of acquiring university education. Many school leavers think about going to university for four or five years. Obviously, the cost of tuition, the cost of books and different supplies, and the cost of living in a hostel represent the money cost of going to university.
If a person does not go to college, then he or she will probably find a job instead. Economists describe the money that those who choose university might have earned during their years of study as forgone earnings, but not the money spent on tuition and books. Thus, the opportunity cost of going to university is the goods and services represented by the money cost of the education, plus the value of the forgone earnings.
The cost of doing something often has nothing to do with spending money. For example, if you gave up the option of playing a computer game to read this text, the cost of reading this text is the enjoyment you would have received playing the game. Most of economics is based on the simple idea that people make choices by comparing the benefits of options and choosing the one with the highest benefit.
But there are two sides of the coin of opportunity cost. One is forgone value resulting from scarcity, and the other is opportunity. There would be no opportunity costs without opportunity. If there were only one thing you could do with your time and talents, there would be no cost of doing it. The larger the number and the more valuable the opportunities you have, the better this increases the cost of the choices you make.
So, the problems of scarcity, trade offs and opportunity costs are the main economic issues that any economic unit faces.
We as individuals and as a society are faced with scarcity (of raw materials and financial resources, of goods and services, of time, and so on) in relation to our ever-growing* needs and wants. It is economics that helps make our choices (a new car or tuition fees, more hospitals or more highways, more free time or more income from work) and gives a way of understanding how to make the best use of available resources to achieve our aims.
1. WHY STUDY ECONOMICS What is economics and why is it so important for everyone? Economics is not a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree in business or financial management, although economics teaches us important business skills. Economics isn’t a way of making lots of money in the stock market, although economics helps us understand how stock markets and other markets work. Economics, first of all, is a social science that helps to explain the secrets of how people make their living, enterprises earn their profits and societies achieve their goals. Most of our conscious life is directly concerned with the economy and economics, one way or another. If we want to get a job we have to enter the economy or in other words, to enter the market for labour. If we want to buy food or clothing we go to the economy or, to put it another way, enter the market for a particular commodity. We all make economic decisions every day of our lives and economics helps us improve the decision-making process*. Стикаємося з ек. питаннями! When reading newspapers, listening to the news, surfing the Internet, or just speaking to our friends, we come face to face with economic issues that have an effect on us, our friends and family as well as* our society. Важливі ек.проблеми! These important economic problems do with a large number of questions including: ü Are we using energy efficiently? ü Why do financial crises occur? ü What are the consequences of a nation’s large budget deficit? ü What are the economic effects of emigration from Ukraine? Дозволяє відповісти на ін.питання! Economics helps answer these and a great many of other questions we can’t help dealing with* in a contemporary society – allocation of resources, inflation, unemployment, discrimination, economic growth, pollution and poverty. Thus, studying economics is worth our effort and time as it enables us to improve our own as well as a nation’s welfare. When it comes to* reasons of studying economics they are as different as we are and the ways it helps us individually change from person to person. Ек.розвиває, потужний інструмент, допомагає! For some of us, economics, first of all, develops an analytical, clear, and accurate way of economic thinking about all kinds of things and can be applied to a variety of different fields. It is a powerful tool which, once learned*, enables us to separate facts from emotions, examine and track cause and effect relationships* carefully. Economic reasoning also helps to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of choices we make in order to gain our aims and deal with a wide range of economic matters intelligently. Заробляти на життя. Кар*єра. For others, economics studies how to gain a living. Studying economics we can realize where our money comes from and goes in and how to manage money we get. The more we know about economics, the better career and business decisions we are able to take, the higher living standard we enjoy. Вигода бізнесменам, демократія. Businessmen require knowledge of the “ins and outs”* of business economics to achieve the highest production efficiency, draw the greatest possible profits with the least possible production costs*, meet competition in the market and as a result succeed in the business world. Besides, a basic understanding of economics is necessary if we want to understand national and international affairs and become responsible and knowledgeable citizens in order to affect the decisions of our political leaders by voting, directly or indirectly, on many points involving economic issues. Knowledge of economics also helps us to be efficient members of the workforce, better informed voters, consumers, savers, and investors in a democracy*. Thus, economic knowledge enables us to manage our personal lives, understand society, and make better the world around us. |
But why does everyone – no matter what we are – economists, teachers, doctors, workers, or students – consider economics so important? Ø Economics is important for individuals, as economic decisions affect the quality of their life. Ø Economics is important for firms, which need to be profitable in their activities. Ø Economics is important for governments, as they want to come to good decisions about economic policies. Ø Economics is important for society as a whole, since* it needs to use its productive resources in the most efficient way. All in all, everybody needs to know economics in order to understand and live in our world today. Of course, economic knowledge cannot make us geniuses. But without economics the dice of life are simply loaded against us*. |
THE UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a leading trading power and financial center. It has the fourth largest economy in the world and the second largest in Europe. The United Kingdom is composed by the political union of four constituent entities: England, Scotland and Wales on the island of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on the island of Ireland.
Great Britain has a mixed private and public enterprise economy. In Britain’s economy private enterprises produce 75% of output and generate nearly 70% of employment. To make the British economy more efficient the government tries to stimulate innovations in industry, encourage competition, reduce taxes, promote exports and work for worldwide free trade. The government provides financial assistance and guidance to small companies.
Trade has been a key part of the British economy for centuries. Britain is the fifth largest trading nation. its prosperity has been dependent upon the export of manufactured goods in exchange for raw materials and foodstuffs.
The country’s chief exports are manufactured goods such as electrical and electronic equipment, aerospace equipment, machinery, chemicals, textile fibers, fuels, iron and steel, and transport equipment. The leading imports are manufactured and consumer goods, foodstuffs, industrial and electrical machinery, semi-finished goods, clothing and accessories, office machines and data processing equipment, and transport equipment.
The structure of the British economy can be divided into three main sectors:
Primary industries that deal with providing raw materials and food from the land and the sea.
Manufacturing industries that deal with making finished goods from raw materials.
Service industries that deal with providing a wide variety of services (banking, insurance, computing, tourism etc.)
Britain has the largest energy resources in Europe and abundant supplies of oil and natural gas. Half of the national consumption of energy resources is used for industrial and commercial purposes and the rest for household use.
The British agriculture is known for its high efficiency and productivity. The production of some foodstuffs outstrips demand. In Britain over three-quarters of the land is used for agriculture. About three-fifths of farms are engaged in dairy or beef cattle breading and sheep-raising. Britain is also self-sufficient in milk, poultry meat and eggs. Barley, wheat, rape, potatoes, sugar beets, fruit, and vegetables are the country’s main crops. Britain is one of Europe’s most important fishing nations.
Manufacturing, one of the main sectors of the British economy that deals with making finished goods from raw materials. Manufacturing includes electronics, aerospace, chemical, plastics, paper and printing industries. Over the last decades growth has been most notable in chemical and electrical, electronic and instrument engineering.
Services have experienced the fastest growth in the recent years. The service industries include financial, banking, retailing, wholesaling, tourism, business services, transport, insurance, investment, advertising, public relations, market research, education, administrative and government, professional services.
The Bank of England, as the central bank, is responsible for the monetary policy of the country and also manages the county’s foreign exchange and gold reserves. The pound sterling is the basic unit of currency in Great Britain.
Britain is one of the world’s foremost travel destinations and tourism is an essential part of Britain’s income and employs 7% of the workforce.
Britain has historically been an innovator and world leader in many forms of transportation, from shipping to rail systems and aviation.
London’s main airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, are among the world’s busiest centers for international travel.
A railway tunnel beneath the English Channel connects England and the European continent. The underground provides reliable public transportation for an impressive number of commuters.
UNITED STATES
United States has a mixed economy that has maintained a stable overall GDP growth rate, a moderate unemployment rate, and high levels of research and capital investment. It is a dynamic, free-market system that is constantly developing the choices and decisions made by millions of citizens. It is individual producers and consumers who determine the kinds of goods and services produced and the prices of those products. But though a great majority of productive resources are privately owned, the federal government does play an important part in the national economy. It provides services and goods that the market cannot provide effectively, such as national defense, public goods and services, assistance programs for low-income families, and interstate highways and airports.
The United States is the largest trading nation in die world, exporting and importing more goods and services than any other country. The total value of US imports and exports has amounted to 25 percent of the country's GDP.
Economic activity of the USA is divided into 4 sectors.
The first sector provides goods that come directly from natural resources: agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining.
The second sector includes manufacturing and the generation of electricity.
The third sector, made up of commerce and services, is now the largest part of the US economy.
It comprises financial services, wholesaling and retailing, government services, transportation, entertainment, tourism, and other businesses that provide a wide variety of services to individuals and businesses. The fourth major economic sector deals with recording, processing, and transmission of information, and includes the communication industry.
The United States leads all nations in the value of its yearly manufacturing output. Manufacturing employs about one-sixth of nation's workers and accounts for 17 percent of annual gross domestic product.
The leading categories of the US manufactured goods are chemicals, industrial machinery, electronic equipment, processed mods, and transportation equipment. Different branches of industry such as textile, clothing, leather goods, food processing, precision instruments, lumber, furniture, tobacco and many other are highly developed too.
The largest sector of the economy in terms of output and employment is the service and commerce sector. The growth of the sector has resulted in creating many new jobs in financing, banking, education and health services requiring advanced education. One of the largest service industries in the United States is travel and tourism. Tourism is mainstay of the economies of California, Florida and Hawaii.
By the end of the 20th century many technological innovations had been introduced in the United States. One of the most far-reaching technological advances of the late 20th century took place in the field of computer science. The communication systems in the United States are among the most developed in the world. The industry has enormous importance to the political, social, and intellectual activity of the nation. Most communication media in the USA are privately owned and operate independently of government control.
The United States has substantial mineral deposits within its borders. It leads the world in the production of phosphate, an important ingredient in fertilizers, and Tanks second in gold, silver; iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, natural gas, and coal, huge fields of natural gas and oil. Agricultural output in the United States has historically been among the highest in the world.
The United States has some of the best cropland in the world. Cultivated farmland constitutes 19 percent of the land area of the country and makes the United States the world's richest agricultural nation. It ranks fourth in the world in cattle production and second in hogs.
Cattle production, hog production, and chicken production are widespread throughout the United States. Vegetables are grown widely in the United States. Most fruits grown in the United States are apples, pears, plums and citrus fruits — lemons, oranges, and grapefruits. The United States leads the world in lumber production and is second in the production of wood for pulp and paper manufacture.
UKRAINE
Ukraine, being one of the largest countries of Europe, has an emerging free market economy. With rich farmlands, convenient geographical position in terms of international trade, a well-developed industrial base, highly trained labor force of about 20 million, and a good education system, Ukraine has a great potential to become a major European economy.
After Russia, the Ukrainian republic was the most important economic component of the former Soviet Union, producing about four times the output of the next-ranking republic. Its fertile black soil generated more than one-fourth of the Soviet agricultural output, its farms provided substantial quantities of meat, milk, grain, and vegetables to other republics.
Having gained its sovereignty in August 1991 on the breakup of the former Soviet Union, Ukraine faced a number of simultaneous challenges and had to go through highs and lows within the context of the Ukraine's transition to a market economy.
After a period of economic decline Ukraine recorded gradual economic growth. GDP growth was first registered in 2000, continued for nine years and posted healthy growth rate of real GDP from 2,3% to 12% over 2000-2008. In 2008, Ukraine's economy was ranked 45th in the world with the total nominal GDP.
After a robust 9-year expansion Ukraine’s economy was greatly affected by the world financial crisis of 2008 and experienced a sharp slowdown in late 2008, which continued through 2009. The Ukrainian economy began recovering in the first quarter of 2010. The country's real GDP growth in 2010-2011 was about 4%.
Ukraine’s economy remains burdened by excessive government regulation, corruption, heavy utilization of tax avoidance schemes, and lack of independent law enforcement system. Much remains to be done to restructure and modernize sectors such as energy and transport and to create a market system for agricultural land.
Nevertheless, in terms of investments Ukraine remains one of the most promising markets for a great number of domestic and international companies looking for growth opportunities. Liberalization of the economy and further structural reforms will lead to improved investment climate, creation of new jobs and will eventually help to drive the economy out of the crisis.
Ukraine abounds in natural resources and industrial production capacity Nowadays it is one of the largest metal producing and metal processing countries in the world. The country has metallurgy as the leading Ukrainian export. Besides metals the main export items include: ores, coal, soda, electricity, machinery, building materials, chemicals, fertilizers, consumer goods, crops, vegetable oil. Among Ukraine’s main imports are gas, chemicals and fuels, timber, nonferrous metals, machinery and transport vehicles, knitted wear and garments, foodstuffs, medications. The major Ukraine’s trade partners are Russia, Germany, Italy, Belarus, China and Turkmenistan.
Steel industry is the most important sector of the national economy. The volumes of steel produced in our country make it the seventh largest producer in the world. Ukraine’s metallurgy produces cast iron, rolled steel and steel pipe. Mining is also a very important branch of the economy, the main products being coal, natural gas, and iron ore. Ukraine’s chemical industry is well developed too. It produces coke, mineral fertilizers, and sulfuric acid.
Ukraine’s machine building produces ships, spacecraft, aircraft, locomotives, machine tools and mining equipment The machine industry accounts for a third of country's industrial output and employs about a fourth of Ukraine's workers. The automobile industry produces automobiles, trucks, buses, railway trucks4, and tractors. Airplanes are produced by the world’s famous company named after Antonov.
Coal and ore mining, chemical refining, and electricity production constitute 60 percent of GDP. Domestically produced gas satisfies only 20-25 per cent of total gas demand, while oil production meets only 10-12 per cent of oil demand. In order to satisfy its energy consumption the economy relies on imported oil and natural gas, primarily from Russia.
Ukraine is independent in its electricity supply, moreover, exporting it to both Russia and Eastern Europe. The country possesses a massive high-tech industrial base. Ukraine is among the ten leading countries of the world in the sphere of information technologies.
Ukraine is an attractive country for investment owing to its highly skilled labour force combined with lower costs of production and low wages. It has advantages over other countries in several areas, both as a producer and as a consumer. As producers, Ukraine is able to compete in metallurgy, machine-building, software development, food processing.
Ukraine is an agro-industrial country. It manufactures such processed foods as refined sugar, canned foods and wine; consumer goods, including television sets, washing machines, refrigerators, clothes, shoes, and chemical fertilizers as well.
Agriculture, one of the country's key economic sectors, produces 12.8% of GDP employing a fifth of the working population. The country has over 30 million hectares of land under cultivation. Owing partly to rich soils and a favorable climate, Ukraine's crop production is highly developed. Ukraine ranks as a leading wheat-growing country. Besides wheat, such grains as barley, corn, legumes, oats, rye, millet, buckwheat are grown. Other food crops include potatoes, vegetables, melons, berries, other fruit, nuts, and grapes.
Ukraine is the largest producer of sunflower seeds, the principal oil crop, and the largest exporter of sunflower oil.
Unfortunately Ukraine's livestock sector lags behind the crop sector, because of insufficient government support and low private investment amounts.
Cattle and pigs are bred throughout Ukraine. Sheep and goats are more common in the Carpathian Mountains and in some parts of the southern steppe and the Crimea.
Great progress has been made in poultry farming, fishing, and bee-farming. Chickens, geese, and turkeys are raised in all regions for meat and egg production. Bees are kept in all parts of Ukraine for pollination and production of honey and wax.
The agricultural processing sector is regarded as the first priority in the Ukrainian economy.
Agribusiness requires further restructuring to provide stable growth and utilization of its potential.
Foreign direct investments bring not only capital into the country but also new management and technical skills as well as new technology and production methods.