SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST

Kherson becomes the 76th Ukrainian city that will have its economic development strategy drafted with assistance from the USAID LED project

Vyacheslav Yaremenko, First Deputy Mayor (in the foreground), reads the list of Expert Committee members. Next to him sits City Rada Secretary Yuriy Pohrebny

As the USAID LED project is nearing its completion in late 2008, Kherson has cut it fine, embarking upon the project-assisted strategic planning on July 9, when the ad hoc Expert Committee for Economic Development gathered for its introductory meeting in the City Hall.

Kherson Mayor Volodymyr Saldo (left) and LED Project Chief of Party Howard Ockman sign the Letter of Intent between the City Rada and the project. According to the mayor, the strategic planning will allow the community to look into the future and make a better use of its resources in time. Mr. Ockman, answering a journalist's question on why American taxpayers fund development of cities in Ukraine, said, "It's a small world, in which Ukraine is actually a neighbor to the United States. And it's very important to neighbors to be stable and secure, to have good economic growth, and good social stability. So it's within the interest of the United States to see that its neighbor Ukraine is a strong country that stands on its own"

The meeting familiarized the committee members with the strategic planning methodology applied by the LED project and wound up in the signing of Letter of Intent between the Kherson City Rada and the project.

Kherson Mayor Volodymyr Saldo, who presided over the meeting, compared cities with huge organisms that live and evolve. He said residents need to think of how their cities will develop in the future.

"Economic development strategy in general is an essential document, whose format projects the city's development and life in the long run," the Mayor said. "And I believe that it's better to work on this document with experts having an experience in this work."

Presenting the project and its general approach, LED Project Chief of Party Howard Ockman said that basically its work is to help cities in Ukraine think strategically about their economic future. "All of what we do depends on you: all the ideas, all the creativity, all of the thoughts, all of the understanding about your city and its potential comes from your minds," he pointed out. "The project just provides a methodology to put all of that together."

The southernmost big city on the Dnipro river, the Kherson Oblast capital set to strategic planning after the oblast's other major cities had adopted their Economic Development Strategic Plans and some of them had even united to draft a regional strategy. In an informal conversation after the meeting, Mr. Ockman said he was ready with an answer should anybody have asked him, why it took the project that long to come to Kherson: "It's like when a kid receives Lifesavers and saves the one with his favorite flavor to be eaten last".