High rates of opening new businesses, housing construction and retail turnover are the key factors of growing job opportunities in the city. Khmelnytskyi is driven by small and medium enterprises, focused on the trade and services sectors, clothing and textiles production, food processing, construction, industry and logistics, IT-sector. The Khmelnytskyi City Council recently approved the creation of the Khmelnytskyi Industrial Park which will provide new opportunities for industrial development, strengthening cooperation between companies, investors, local governments, economic development institutions and other stakeholders. Industrial park “Khmelnytskyi” will provide a modern, developed complex to attract domestic and foreign investors in priority sectors of the city.
Khmelnytskyi is a perfect spot to locate investments, especially if they combine development within Ukraine and expansion to the markets of the EU, Russia, Belarus, and other Eastern Partnership countries, Turkey, Central Asia and China. The city is located at a junction of important transport routes from Western Europe leading to Central Asia and from the Baltic states, towards the Black Sea and Turkey. In 2017 Khmelnytskyi became an associate member of the Silk Road Cities' Alliance. The city is a location for one of the largest wholesale and retail markets in Ukraine visited by people not only from all over Ukraine but also from Poland, Belarus, Moldova and other neighboring countries. Khmelnytskyi has the potential to become the main logistical center of the Western Ukraine. The principal reasons are its favorable geographical location and modernizing transport infrastructure network, as well as the accessibility of resources necessary to implement large-scale logistic investments.
Focus Magazine reports that the Khmelnytskyi City is the most comfortable in Ukraine after Kyiv and Lviv. The most positive aspects of quality of life in Khmelnitsky make the city a great place to live in:
Broad access to public services, plenty of greenery within the city, various entertaining and catering establishments, along with numerous places where you can spend quality time, all make Khmelnytskyi a truly unique city, so different than other hectic metropolises. City residents give high ratings to the quality of life. According to the third municipal survey of urban residents, conducted by the International Republican Institute (IRI) in 2017, 46 percent of respondents believe that things in the city are generally in the right direction compared with 13 percent of respondents who believe that things are generally in the right direction in Ukraine.
Population of Khmelnytskyi is about equal to European cities such as Rzeszow (Poland), Salzburg (Austria), Aachen (Germany), Wiesbaden (Germany), Chemnitz (Germany), Magdeburg (Germany), Erfurt (Germany), Potsdam (Germany), Strasbourg (France), Lille (France), Kosice (Slovakia). Over 70 percent of Khmelnytskyi’s population is of working age and the labor market is full of young, ambitious and highly qualified people ready to work. The high share of employees with experience in the city's priority sectors is typical of Khmelnytskyi. These include trade, light industry, food sector, logistics, transport and warehousing, ICT and BPO/SSC, construction, engineering. Strong faculties in the fields of engineering, information technology, business administration or linguistic are the perfect source of employees for businesses from all sectors. Additional assets for potential investors are attractive labor and employment costs in comparison with other Central and Eastern European cities.
Khmelnytskyi is a city of small and medium-sized enterprises. Registration of a new business is free of charge and takes place within one day at a single location. The cost of registering a property right is UAH 180 – 8810 and can take from 2 hours to 5 working days. Construction permits are free of charge and are approved within 10 working days. City authorities help to eliminate barriers and administrative obstacles in every possible way. In particular, the licensing procedures have been simplified, the system of administrative services has been improved, and a transparent mechanism for the transfer of land (privatization) and communal property was introduced.