A seminar on Efficient Use of City Resources for Economic Development, held in Kyiv on May 23-25, 2007, assembled representatives from USAID LED project’s partner cities to discuss problems of implementation of their Strategic Plans and share experience in local economic development.
Oleh Synyutka, Lviv Deputy Mayor and Chairman of the AUC Communities Economic Development Section: “I believe that, as a result of such seminars, not only exchange of best practices takes place but also new ideas are generated” Howard Ockman, LED Project Chief of Party: “Let the LED practitioners will grow to see themselves as the professional community of LED practitioners in Ukraine”
Most of over 50 participants in the event organized by LED in conjunction with the Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC), a good deal of whom were graduates from the project’s FDI training program, represented those of the project target cities that are implementing their Strategic Plans. Other participants included independent local consultants and representatives from the USAID Regional Mission, InvestUkraine, and the media.
LED Project Chief of Party Howard Ockman and Lviv Deputy Mayor Oleh Synyutka, who chairs the AUC Communities Economic Development Section, kicked off the seminar with words of welcome. Then major part of the audience listened to LED Legal Advisor Volodymyr Nosik, speaking on land law-related problems of strategic plan implementation, and FDI Advisor Petro Koshukov, telling about site preparation for industrial development, while the media people were attending a separate, dedicated, workshop.
However, the high spots of the event, which took the rest of the first and the entire next day, were presentations on results of strategic plan implementation in the cities.
On the whole, the presentations allow for identifying the following trends:
The cities pay more attention to promotion and investment attraction, and do this at a higher, more professional, level than before. This can be explained by two major factors. First, the Municipal Offices of Economic Development have gained momentum. Establishment of MOED was a commitment made by the cities in order to take part in the LED project, and the key thing that differentiates them from Soviet-era economic departments is that their main function is to create conditions for local economies to grow rather then exercise command of local economic entities. Second, the FDI training program launched by the project last year has brought 42 certified FDI professionals to Ukrainian municipalities.
Nearly all cities reported preparation of sites for industrial and/or commercial development, as well as creation of web sites either focused on investment attraction or having special pages on the matter. These web sites are typically bilingual, with English as one of the two languages. Besides numerous successful examples of investments, the cities also cited increased collaboration with investment agencies, both national and regional/local.
As a result of the economic development efforts, increases in jobs and incomes were also repeatedly mentioned in the presentations. Other areas of improvement included small and medium enterprise development, human resources, and communal infrastructure.
On the third day, InvestUkrain Regional and Sectorial Collaboration Head Yaroslav Vyshnya and Investment Project Manager Ruslan Fedorov reported on the agency’s regional development strategy. There also were two presentations made on industrial zone development, in Novohrad-Volynsky and Komsomolsk, where the LED project created conceptual designs of the industrial sites.
The seminar ended in group work of the participants.
Commenting on the event, Mr. Synyutka told the LED Monitor on Wednesday that the seminar was very useful, as it gathered representatives from the cities that are most active in their intention to amend current legislation and want to approximate development standards of Ukrainian cities to the best European and world models.
“I believe that, as a result of such seminars, not only exchange of best practices takes place but also new ideas are generated, which are then realized in cities and can be suggested as a model to follow at the Ukrainian national level,” Mr. Synyutka said.
He also reported that the AUC Economic Development Section is planning to hold similar events quarterly in different cities, and that there is a tentative agreement on joint organization of these events with representatives from USAID.
The first such seminar was conducted in October 2006. Mr. Ockman says the idea was to “bring together practitioners of LED – and FDI, a fundamental part of LED – so that they will grow to see themselves as the professional community of LED practitioners in Ukraine, trading information and new ideas, learning from one another, sharing their successes, and discussing their common challenges each with the other.”
The seminars seem to hit the mark. According to the project Chief of Party, “it looks like there are more and more contacts among the professional practitioners from our [project’s] various cities, and that those contacts may be becoming routine. That’s a sign of a community.” He also said that, whenever there was an opportunity, the participants worked well as teams, and that was an indication of their professional identity. Just a few episodes in the event…
