Kaskiv: Government to approve national project on 2022 Winter Olympics

The Ukrainian government is planning to approve a national project on the 2022 Winter Olympics, Head of the State Agency for Investment and National Projects of Ukraine Vladyslav Kaskiv has said. 

"The Olympic Hope - 2022 national project should be immediately approved by the country's government. The adoption of a feasibility study is a key step of Ukraine's success in its bid to host the Olympics in 2022. This decision will also help implement the agreements that have already been reached with investors regarding the financing of ski resorts and ensure the fulfillment of a national action plan that was approved by the Ukrainian president in 2012. There's little time to fulfill these tasks," he said on Friday during the presentation of a feasibility study for the Olympic Hope – 2022 national project.

Kaskiv said that the project would help create a new industry of winter tourism in the Carpathian Mountains, which, in turn, will help ensure the economic development of Ukraine's western regions.

"An analysis conducted by the State Agency for Investment and National Projects of Ukraine helped calculate that this project will help increase the gross regional product by 5% in Lviv region and by 3% in Zakarpattia region. This will help return thousands of migrant workers to Ukraine and create tens of thousands of jobs. In addition, this will significantly improve the international rating of Ukraine," he said.

In September 2010, the Ukrainian president signed a decree initiating the process of the implementation of the Olympic Hope – 2022 national project. Deputy Prime Minister and Infrastructure Minister Borys Kolesnikov was appointed the head of the organizing committee on the submission of Ukraine's bid to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, which was set up in December 2010.

Germany's ProProjekt Planungsmanagement & Projektberatung GmbH (Germany) is the developer of a feasibility study for the project.