On Aug. 30, 2006, the Commission for Promoting Investment Opportunities in Pryluky, formed in the city to implement one of its priority projects under the Pryluky Economic Development Strategic Plan, adopted a Marketing Action Plan for Investment Attraction and approved the makeup pages of part of planned promotional materials, specifically two fact sheets describing land plots that the city offers to investors already now.
The fact sheets are designed to answer likely questions of potential investors regarding basic features of sites offered for sale or long lease. These sheets will be put into a custom-made file, also approved by the Commission, and replaced as necessary, thus ensuring that the information supplied to investors is always updated in a relatively inexpensive manner.
 Vitaliy Fedchuk, B.A.T. Ukraine Corporate Department manager for regulatory issues, is presenting mockups of promotional materials to the Commission for Promoting Investment Opportunities in Pryluky |
“Participation in this project will teach Pryluky citizens working in the present-day conditions,” said the B.A.T. Ukraine Corporate Department manager for regulatory issues, Vitaliy Fedchuk, explaining to the LED Monitor why just these projects had been selected for financing. “It will provide them with a tool for the city to independently attract investments later on, creating jobs and raising the living standards of residents. Obviously, sometimes in the process of work local participants and invited experts took a different view of promotional materials, but eventually I think the output looks very professional, and we like it,” he said.
Says Nadia Yeremenko, deputy mayor for city development strategic planning and economic programs: “Typically, such materials produced in Ukraine suffer from being overloaded. We want to tell everything, to a certain level of detail, but this is not always required. We never understand what exactly people from abroad, potential investors, are interested in. That is why we sought to involve a foreign expert – to get a better understanding of information that a foreigner would expect us to provide.”
With assistance from the LED project, Nora Maderkova, a municipal marketing consultant from the Czech Republic, served as such foreign expert. Using her significant experience in developing marketing materials for municipalities in several Central European countries, she helped Pryluky elaborate the materials to a quality level that is new to the city.
Another important ingredient of promotional materials targeted at an English-speaking audience is the quality of language meeting the standards of native speakers. This is quite difficult to attain in a small Ukrainian town. In Pryluky, US Peace Corps volunteer Pedro Khoury helped solve the problem. “Economically, when a city wants to spur growth, they have to attract business in order for this to occur”, he shared his thoughts with LED Monitor. “What Pryluky has done is identified an area of improvement, sought consultation for implementing the idea, and then implemented a plan. It has taken vision and a lot of work. This experience is a lesson in economic development and it interests me as a real life experience that I can enhance while being here”.
Next steps, which will be made soon, are to produce a printed booklet, a CD, and a web-based presentation. The Marketing Action Plan also provides for effective collaboration between the city and the Ukrainian Center for Foreign Investment Promotion and between the local government and local businesses.
B.A.T., the world’s second largest tobacco group, came to Ukraine in 1993. It purchased a 100-year-old tobacco factory in Pryluky, and turned it into up-to-date tobacco production facility. The total investment in the factory upgrade and development exceeds $100 million.
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