In Tsyurupynsk, Kherson Oblast, the City Rada on Oct. 12, 2007, unanimously adopted a strategy for economic development of the city "just by passing a resolution," thus formalizing de jure what had been earlier approved de facto, the City Rada secretary reported yesterday.
Tsyurupynsk Mayor Hanna Hrabovska speaks at a meeting of the Expert Committee
The draft Economic Development Strategic Plan, worked out by an Expert Committee with assistance from the USAID LED project, was first presented at the final meeting of the committee in September in presence of the chairpersons of the Rada's standing commissions, some members of the Rada, and managers of municipal utility enterprises, Tetyana Vysochyna told the LED Monitor. At that meeting, the drafters made necessary amendments in the document in accordance with comments and proposals voiced, and a decision was taken to recommend approval of the plan by the Rada.
The Strategic Plan was also presented to Rada members later, at separate meetings and then a joint meeting of the standing committees on Oct. 8 and 9, Ms. Vysochyna said. And only after that it was put to the vote at the Rada plenary meeting.
The plan calls Tsyurupynsk a "green oasis in Europe's only desert" and focuses on three issues the Expert Committee identified as critical for the city's economic development: Investment Attraction; Tourism Development; and Sociocultural and Vocational Development of City Residents.
The Rada secretary highly commended both the quality of the document and the assistance provided by the LED project. She said "it would take us a very long time to invent something homemade." She also emphasized usefulness to the city of the Community Profile compiled in the process of strategic planning: "We badly needed one but were hardly able to do it unassisted."
