Appendix 1 INFORMATION NOTE ON THE SUMY REGION Location The Sumy region is a province in the north-eastern part of Ukraine located next to the southern border of Russia The administrative centre is the city of Sumy. Other important cities within the region include Konotop, Okhtyrka, Romny, and Shostka. There are approximately 886,100 people living in cities and towns and the remainder stay in villages. Administration The Sumy Region was established on December 10, 1939. and comprises 18 districts, 15 cities, 7 city municipalities, 20 Urban-type settlements, 384 village councils, and 1500 villages. The leadership of Sumy regional state administration comprises the Head, first deputy of the Head, deputy of the Head of information, religion, nationalities, culture, sport; deputy of the Head of energy, industry, transport, and communication; deputy of the Head of building, communal services and motor road economy; deputy of the Head on territory development and foreign economic relations; deputy of the Head of agriculture and food, trade, consumer services of the population; deputy of the Head on political and legal issues and deputy of the Head on organizational staff activity of regional state administration on organization, legal, personnel and inspection work. Area 23,800 sq kilometres Population 1,256,000 Economy Agriculture is a key industry and there are significant crops of grain, sugar beets, sunflower seeds, potatoes. The region also produces significant amounts of meat, milk and eggs. The main industrial activities of the region are: chemical mechanical engineering, pumping and energy mechanical engineering, agricultural machine-construction, instrument-making industry and radio electronics, technical equipment production for processing fields of agro-industrial complexes, mining and iron ore production industry, polygraph industry and medicine production, oil and gas processing, chemical production, film and photo material production and chemical fertilizer production..