Made in Ukraine: state procures 1,000 buses via Prozorro Market e-catalogue

1,000 school buses worth more than UAH 3 billion were purchased by communities in 2023-24 to ensure that students can get to educational institutions safely and comfortably.

The purchases were made through the Prozorro Market electronic catalogue, the relevant part of which is administered by SE Professional Procurement. This allowed the procedures to be carried out quickly, transparently and efficiently. On average, the procurement process lasted only 10 days, so schools were able to meet their transport needs as quickly as possible.

The largest number of buses was purchased over the past two years in Lviv and Kyiv regions – 93 and 90 respectively. The breakdown for the other regions is as follows:

• Dnipropetrovsk region – 68
• Vinnytsia region – 62
• Poltava region – 55
• Odesa region – 55
• Rivne region – 53
• Zakarpattia region – 53
• Mykolaiv region – 52
• Zhytomyr region – 48
• Ternopil region – 44
• Ivano-Frankivsk region – 41
• Khmelnytskyi region – 40
• Sumy region – 39
• Cherkasy region – 38
• Chernivtsi region – 35
• Volyn region – 35
• Kharkiv region – 33
• Zaporizhzhia region – 26
• Chernihiv region – 25
• Kirovohrad region – 20
• Kherson region – 2

“The school buses purchased through Prozorro Market are made in Ukraine. They were purchased from four national automotive plants. Thus, students received the necessary transport, and Ukrainian businesses that pay taxes and support the economy received orders from the state. Last year, thanks to this programme, approximately 10,000 employees of plants and related enterprises in Ukraine had jobs and resources for development. In fact, 212 Ukrainian companies are additionally involved in the production of one domestic bus. Next year, the Government has also provided a subvention for the purchase of Ukrainian-made buses, as support for the national manufacturer is an important component of the Made in Ukraine policy,” said Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine.

The renewal of the school fleet is part of the School Offline programme implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science. Its goal is to give students the opportunity to study safely in a face-to-face format. Therefore, the availability of the necessary transport is critical, especially in rural areas and frontline regions.

“The purchase of 1,000 new school buses is an important step towards restoring access to full-time education in times of war. These buses will ensure that students are transported to schools with shelters, which guarantees their safety during their studies. Particular attention is paid to children with special educational needs: the number of specially equipped seats on buses should meet the needs of such students. Thanks to funding of UAH 1.2 billion in 2024, we will provide access to full-time education for more children, and in 2025 the state budget provides UAH 1.6 billion for further purchases of buses,” said Deputy Minister of Education and Science Nadiia Kuzmychova.

For two years, the Government has been allocating subventions for communities to purchase school buses. In 2025, bus procurement through Prozorro Market will continue, as the need for school transport remains urgent.

“Prozorro Market is about mutually beneficial conditions of cooperation between the state and national business, which is critically important in our conditions. On the one hand, the tool allows you to quickly and economically purchase the necessary goods from suppliers who are carefully checked for integrity by the administrator. On the other hand, the e-catalogue is a reliable and transparent mechanism where entrepreneurs can sell their products. Currently, 10,000 customers buy from Prozorro Market, and more than 5,000 suppliers of various goods regularly sell their goods through the e-catalogue,” said Yevhen Yakubovsky, Director of SE Professional Procurement.

Background

The School Bus programme is implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy through Prozorro Market and is part of the national policy “Made in Ukraine” initiated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.