The Luhansk Economy Department is about to submit a draft Small and Medium Enterprise Support Program to the city’s Executive Committee for approval and then introduction into the City Rada, a local government officer told the LED Monitor on Wednesday.
Valentyna Bystrova, head of the section for economic analysis and development and interaction with economic entities within the Economy Department, said the section has been elaborating the two-year program since October 2006. On Jan. 17, 2007, the program will be presented at a session of the Executive Committee. “Actually, it is finished. We’re just debugging it according to lawyers’ comments,” she said.
One of the documents underlying the SME Support Program is the Luhansk Economic Development Strategic Plan, which was drafted in the city with assistance from the USAID Local Economic Development (LED) project. “All activities under the program are nearly identical to those under [the SME support section of] the strategy,” says Ms. Bystrova.
On Dec. 27, 2006, the Luhansk City Rada adopted the Strategic Plan and the city budget, earmarking UAH 265,100 for the Economy Department to support small and medium entrepreneurship in the year 2007. This amount is 13 times what the department received last year for the same purpose, according to Ms. Bystrova. “But implementation of the program will involve some other departments as well, so the actual amount earmarked for the program implementation is higher,” she said.
There may be some amendments in the program, made by both the Executive Committee and the City Rada, and therefore it is early to disclose activities among which this quarter of a million hryvnyas will be distributed, Ms. Bystrova explained. “But I can say for certain that the hot line will be funded. It is popular among our entrepreneurs,” she added.
The hot line to provide advice on issues of business planning and lending comes within one of objectives under the Luhansk Economic Development Strategic Plan. Generally, the plan focuses on two so-called critical issues: develop and support small and medium businesses, and create conditions for investment attraction.
Creation of the Strategic Plan in Luhansk started in June 2006, after the signing of a Letter of Intent between the city and the LED project. In October that year, the draft plan was presented at the final, enlarged, meeting of the city’s Strategic Planning Committee. The meeting was attended by USAID Mission Director Earl Gast, who came to Luhansk to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Luhansk City Rada, confirming USAID’s willingness to assist Luhansk in a wide range of development issues.
