Foreign nationals have set up over 3,000 sole traders in the Odesa region, while in the Mykolaiv region the figure is 10 times lower

As of mid-May this year, nearly 22,000 foreigners had registered sole traders in Ukraine. In the Mykolaiv region, 328 foreigners set up businesses; in the Odesa region, over 3,000; and in the Kherson region, 224 entrepreneurs.

This is evidenced by analytical data from OpenDataBot, according to NikVesti.

Number of foreign sole traders. Infographic: OpenDataBot

The largest number of foreign entrepreneurs operate in Kyiv — 5,216 sole traders, accounting for approximately a quarter of the total. Second place is held by the Kharkiv region with 3,506 entrepreneurs, and third by the Odesa region with 3,295. In total, these three regions account for almost 55% of all foreigners who have set up their own businesses in Ukraine.

Foreign entrepreneurs most often choose the retail sector. Indeed, 6,346 sole traders are engaged in this sector. Warehousing (2,746), wholesale trade (1,732), the HoReCa sector — the hotel and restaurant business (1,703) — and the IT sector (1,624 entrepreneurs) also remain popular.

In which sectors do foreign sole traders operate? Infographic: OpenDataBot

Among foreign entrepreneurs, the largest group are citizens of the Russian Federation — 4,593 people, i.e. one in five foreign sole traders. Next in terms of numbers are citizens of Vietnam (1,994), Azerbaijan (1,635), Uzbekistan (1,469) and Moldova (1,118). Almost half of all foreign entrepreneurs in Ukraine come from these five countries.

Citizens of which countries have registered sole traders in Ukraine. Infographic: OpenDataBot

It was previously reported that 4,400 sole traders in Ukraine provided email addresses on Russian email domains during registration. This accounts for around 0.5% of all active sole traders who provided a contact email address.

It should be noted that there are 30 companies in the Mykolaiv region with foreign owners. By comparison, there are 146 such enterprises in the Odesa region and three in the Kherson region.