Twenty-three participants in the LED project's training program passed exams last week to become full-fledged professionals in attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI).
This number includes two trainees from the program's previous, third, cycle, who for different reasons did not pass the examination in October.
The FDI neophytes, mostly local government officers, represent 15 cities in 12 Ukrainian oblasts and the Ukrainian Center for Foreign Investment Promotion (InvestUkraine).
The graduation ceremony of the fourth cycle is scheduled for April 24, 2008. On that day, the total number of Ukrainian FDI professionals certified under the program will reach 86.
The USAID LED project launched the program in March 2006. It was the first step made in Ukraine toward training of FDI professionals for local governments and public administration agencies. The program, which includes four seminars and a study tour to the Czech Republic, was developed, and is delivered, by Ukrainian, Czech, Scottish, and US LED experts.
Since its second cycle, the program has been issuing a joint certificate with the InvestUkraine, proving the professional level of graduates to the center's standards and fostering partnership between the LED project and InvestUkraine.
Doing a multiple-choice test.
In the forefront on the left: Oleksandr Dudka, Director of the Rogan Industrial Park, a communal enterprise in Kharkiv
Yulia Hurtova, specialist with the Voznesensk City Rada Municipal Initiatives and Investment Support Dept., Mykolaiv Oblast, makes a presentation.
Presentation is part of exams and is evaluated for the quality of slide show and the presentation skills
A quintet of InvestUkraine workers. Each of them made an individual presentation, one by one, and finally they lined up to answer questions.
Standing on the left of the screen: Investor Services Department Head Denys Kryschenko. Standing on the right of the screen (left to right): PR/Communication Manager Mykhaylo Zakryzhevsky, Information Department Head Kateryna Kasperova, Regional & Sectorial Cooperation Dept. Manager Marianna Sokolova, and Lawyer Serhiy Vovk
The examiners look quite satisfied.
Left to right: Howard Ockman, LED Project Chief of Party; Dušan Kulka, LED Project FDI Manager; Stephen Fitzpatrick, Chief of the USAID’s Local Government Division, Office of Economic Growth; Kseniya Isayenko, LED Project FDI Analyst; and Angus Olson, Chemonics International Director for Europe and Eurasia.
The examining board, chaired by InvestUkraine Deputy Director Olena Hantsyak-Kaskiv, also included Berman Group Senior Consultant Petr Adámek, and LED Project FDI Advisor Petro Koshukov, as well as the renowned historian, Prof. Orest Subtelny, who represented the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)