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| Howard Ockman, LED Project Chief of Party: “Our project helps Ukrainian cities think strategically about their economic futures” |
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| Petro Koshukov, LED Project FDI Advisor: “We say about investments as a key factor of economic development” |
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| Volodymyr Nosik, LED Project Legal Advisor: “No implementation of economic development plans will be possible if you don’t solve the set of purely legal issues” |
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| Halyna Vasylchenko, Local Advisor: “We need to stop and look around – where we are, what’s going on, where we want to go, and how to get there” |
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| Nadia Yeremenko, Pryluky Deputy Mayor: “Our Strategic Plan was adopted because it was a result of joint efforts of the local government, businesses and community” |
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| Signing the Letters of Intent |
A round table on Tuesday for (deputy) mayors of nine Ukrainian cities highlighted planning, implementation, investment, and legal aspects of local economic development, and culminated in Letters of Intent signing between the cities and a USAID project.
The event, organized by the USAID Local Economic Development (LED) project, gathered (deputy) mayors of most of the project’s so-called “non-target cities” including Kremenets, Ternopil Oblast; Kolomyia, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast; Mohyliv-Podilsky, Vinnytsya Oblast; Irpin, Vyshneve and Obukhiv, Kyiv Oblast; Koryukivka, Chernihiv Oblast; and Tsyuryupinsk and Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast. (The Luhansk Oblast cities of Lysychansk and Rubizhne signed such Letters earlier.)
Welcoming the audience, LED Project Chief of Party Howard Ockman said, “Basically, what our project does is to help cities in Ukraine think strategically about their economic futures. We have a certain methodology that we use to help cities come up with their own ideas about what they should do in their futures.”
He also explained that the cities called "non-target" are those taken by the project in excess of the 40 cities target set by the USAID. The move, which was the project’s initiative, aims at enhancing the sustainability of project results in Ukraine.
The project’s FDI Advisor Petro Koshukov talked about the investment attraction component of the LED project, highlighting the role of property in investment attraction and presenting the Investment Property Database developed and maintained under the project.
Speaking on legal issues of economic development strategic plan implementation, LED Project Legal Advisor Volodymyr Nosik focused on land plots as investment objects. He said that, even within the existing imperfect legal framework, local governments can take decisions that, on the one hand, are lawful and well-founded, and on the other hand, protect interests of both the local government and the investor.
Halyna Vasylchenko, Local Consultant, gave an overview of the strategic planning process and its goals. She outlined the community-based approach and the Eight Steps methodology used by the LED project.
First results of strategic plan implementation in Pryluky, Chernihiv Oblast, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Chernivtsi was the topic of presentations made by Pryluky Deputy Mayor Nadia Yremenko and Local Consultant Oksana Fedorovych.
The Letter of Intent signed by each of the (deputy) mayors present and the LED Project testifies to the parties’ commitment to collaborate on the development and implementation of an economic development strategy for a signatory city, and outlines the scope and conditions of the collaboration. The letter signing is a requirement for the USAID to begin providing technical assistance to a city through the project.
The LED project provides technical assistance to non-target cities as follows: Representatives from the non-target cities attend Expert Committee meetings in nearby target cities to learn the procedure and replicate its each step in their cities in a few days. The role of advisors there is performed by local consultants hired by the project. These consultants assisted LED advisors in carrying out strategic planning in earlier waves of cities, so they know well the approach used by the project. When necessary, local consultants and local government officers from non-target cities will be able to consult LED advisors by phone or email.
