Kamyanets-Podilsky held an investment projects fair and an international seminar on industrial parks
Not questioning tourism as the city's brand industry, Kamyanets-Podilsky, Khmelnytsky Oblast, endeavors to build up on its tourism development successes by enhancing inflow of investments in other sectors.
Kamyanets-Podilsky Mayor Oleksandr Mazurchak opened the seminar and presented a project of Kamyanets-Podilsky Investment Industrial Park
Kamyanets-Podilsky Deputy Mayor for Economy Volodymyr Kazachuk: "The main priority of Kamyanets-Podilsky is a rational combination of tourism and industrial development"
USAID LED Project Chief of Party Howard Ockman: "Any park that is placed in a city’s territory must have investments that look to the future (a diversified set of investors) and will not become either obsolete or overwhelmed by globalized competition favoring other countries"
USAID LED Project FDI Advisor Petro Koshukov: "Projects on new industrial park development and old industrial site redevelopment are different in principle"
Part of the seminar was a two-hour teleconference with the Basque Economic Development Agency in Spain
On Oct. 4, 2007, the city held the Fourth Fair of Investment Projects and an international seminar on "Investment Industrial Parks as a Form of Investment Attraction in Regional Economy." The goal of the fair and the seminar was to adopt best practices existing in other cities and promote own industrial zone, as Kamyanets-Podilsky Deputy Mayor for Economy Volodymyr Kazachuk reported to LED Monitor earlier.
Opening the event, Kamyanets-Podilsky Mayor Oleksandr Mazurchak emphasized importance of systemic work toward investment attraction and presented a project of Kamyanets-Podilsky Investment Industrial Park. The Mayor took an incremental approach to wooing investors to the industrial park, so that in the end, the park will have good strategic investors that have different and increasing levels of economic sophistication, ecological purity, and capacity to operate in future technological markets.
According to Mr. Kazachuk, the project was developed by the Economic Development and Investment Activities Office within the Kamyanets-Podilsky Economy Department. "Kamyanets-Podilsky – the Flower on the Rock – is Ukraine's tourist’s Mecca with a huge potential for further tourism industry development. But this is a city of 100,000 population, and therefore development of the real economy sector here is expedient," he explained.
The USAID LED project's contribution to the event was three speakers, namely Chief of Party Howard Ockman, FDI Advisor Petro Koshukov, and Legal Advisor Volodymyr Nosik.
Mr. Ockman called industrial parks and technoparks "complicated business projects" and recommended leaving their development to the private sector.
He pointed out that such a park "should complement the work force of the city, and should suit the character of the city. It should take advantage of a city’s assets, such as research institutes or universities, and it should be designed in a way that looks to the future economic health and growth of the community."
"One of the most important things a city should guard against is an industrial park that will become obsolete in the next decade. That means that the city cannot allow an industrial park to be filled exclusively with factories and businesses that are part of an older industry, which may be replaced in the foreseeable future, or may succumb to more efficient competition from other countries, such as China or Southeast Asia," Mr. Ockman warned.
The presentation made by Mr. Koshukov was titled "Planning the Development and Creation of Industrial Zones: Central and Eastern European Experience." The presentation highlighted the importance of property preparation for investor, and illustrated a procedure for a city's systemic work on site development.
Mr. Koshukov also commented on the investment industrial park concept used by Kamyanets-Podilsky, stressing the complexity of solving problems of old industrial zones inherited from the Soviet economy, and the difference in principle between approaches to new industrial park development and old industrial site redevelopment projects.
Mr. Nosik spoke on land-related legal aspects of industrial park development. In addition, he offered to provide expert advice on the legal regime of the land parcel and its individual parts intended for creation of the Kamyanets-Podilsky Investment Industrial Park.
On return to Kyiv Mr. Ockman told the LED Monitor: "The event demonstrated growing awareness of how industrial and technoparks can be used to attract strategic investments to a city; innovative thinking abounded, especially in the teleconference with the Basque local economic development entity that built successful technoparks in the Basque region of Spain."
In turn, Mr. Koshukov commended what he called a "high standard of the event from a technical point of view." He said "the city gave a successful example of public event organization, which aptly combined formats of promotion, training, and discussion."
In March 2006, the Kamyanets-Podilsky adopted the Economic Development Strategic Plan devised with assistance from the USAID LED project. One of the Strategic Plan's three action plans, Investment Attraction, inter alia provides for regular investment fairs and forums to be held in the city.