Since Oct. 25, 2007, four Ukrainian cities have adopted strategies for their economic development. These strategies were hammered out by expert committees established in the cities with assistance from the USAID LED project.
The City Rada in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, considered the Economic Development Strategic Plan on Oct. 25 and voted for it unanimously. According to City Rada Secretary Oleksandr Lukyanenko, the vote was a mere formality, because the document put to vote had been already agreed upon with the Rada members.
"The chairpersons of City Rada standing commissions were all on the Expert Committee," Mr. Lukyanenko explained. "And at the last session of the committee, when the plan's final wording was negotiated, all Rada members were present. Their questions were answered, and their suggestions taken into account, right at this meeting."
He pointed out that Nova Kakhovka began implementing one of projects under the plan even before its final wording saw the light: in September the city established the Regional Development Agency, a communal enterprise that will not only act as a "full-fledged business center," as the Strategic Plan puts it, but also engage in day-to-day implementation of the strategy, the Rada secretary said.
The strategy of Nova Kakhovka – called in the plan the "pearl of the Tavria land on the Dnipro" – focuses on business and tourism development as well as investment attraction.
In Izyum, Kharkiv Oblast, on Oct. 26, the City Rada approved the strategy inasmuch as it concerned the city.
The Sustainable Development Strategic Plan was designed by a joint Strategic Planning Committee representing both the city and the raion (district) of Izyum. The USAID LED project and the EU-funded project on Sustainable Local Development in Ukraine together facilitated and guided the effort.
The plan describes the Izyum region as a "health-resort and touristic nature-reserve territory with unique production of optics and instruments, favorable to investment" It deals with economic development of the territory, human potential development, and formation of a safe and comfortable living environment.
It is expected that the Izyum Raion Rada will consider the strategy in mid November.
Assistance from the LED project to elaboration of the Economic Development Strategic Plan in Beryslav, Kherson Oblast, was indirect, though it involved a certain level of direct consultation on the part of the LED project. Plan developers from Beryslav attended Expert Committee meetings in Nova Kakhovka, learned the strategic planning process, and replayed it in their city.
Beryslav's strategy focuses on municipal infrastructure development, business development, and attraction of investments to production enterprises.
By adopting the plan on Oct. 29, Beryslav became the first Ukrainian city that has independently worked out and approved its Economic Development Strategic Plan using the LED project's methodology.
One more strategy was passed today, in Konotop, Sumy Oblast. All 33 members of the City Rada present at the plenary meeting voted unanimously for the Strategic Plan dealing with investment attraction, SME development, and communal infrastructure development in the "city of Cossack glory and a powerful railroad function."
