OREANDA-NEWS. It has been five years since Metinvest Group and the cities where it operates started partnerships based on agreements and commitments to the community. Charitable support for municipal projects and programs totalled UAH 326 million, of which UAH 103 million went to Mariupol.

The main areas of support provided by Metinvest Group's Mariupol metallurgical enterprises included maintenance and repairs to social facilities, help to schools, road repairs, purchases of municipal transport, repairs and purchases of equipment for medical institutions, and landscaping of streets, parks, yards, and more.

“Partnerships with cities should provide tangible benefits to people living in Mariupol, where Metinvest Group's enterprises are actively developing and Ilyich Iron & Steel Works of Mariupol and Azovstal employ workforces of many thousands of people,” said Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Group, at a community meeting in Mariupol. “We want every Mariupol resident to see the results of our support through improvements in the quality of life in the city.”

The partnership between the company and the city will continue, with social investments growing each year.

Metinvest Group's CEO said that support for different municipal projects and programs will continue and taken to a new level in terms of quality. The partnership budget was UAH 23 million last year. Challenges notwithstanding, Metinvest confirmed it will not reduce the budget this year, but rather increase it by UAH 8 million.

“Our contribution to the development of cites takes the form of salaries paid to steelmakers and miners, taxes paid to city budgets, and charitable financing of municipal projects and programs. In the last five years, Metinvest's payroll totalled UAH 23.2 billion. Taxes paid during this period to the local budgets alone was more than UAH 6 billion, of which about UAH 2 billion was paid to the budget of Mariupol. The company contributed 37.6% of city budget income last year,” said Ryzhenkov.