USAID project kicked off the second cycle of its certification program for foreign direct investment professionals
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USAID LED Project Chief of Party Howard Ockman is welcoming workshop participants: “Please go catch that big tuna!” |
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Stephen Fitzpatrick, chief of the USAID’s Local Government Division, Office of Economic Growth: “FDI is a highly competitive global game”
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Lecturers Ewen Peters, Tomas Vlasak, and Maria Tomanova are waiting for their turn to lecture
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| Olena Kozlyuk from Association of Ukrainian Cities Luhansk Regional Branch is talking points over with lecturers |
On Aug. 30, 2006, the USAID Local Economic Development (LED) project resumed its training program on attraction of foreign direct investments with a second group of representatives from Ukrainian municipalities. The first workshop in the training program, which takes place in the Kyiv suburb of Pushcha-Vodytsya and will last for three days, is being delivered by an international team of lecturers. The entire program comprises five workshops followed by a set of examinations.
The introductory workshop, "Facts and Myths about FDI", dedicated its first day of sessions to “what” and “why” questions, and the program will address the question of “how” to secure FDI in subsequent sessions.
Welcoming the audience, LED Project Chief of Party Howard Ockman outlined the skills they are expected to acquire under the program, such as investment-related marketing, promotion, financial and cost-benefit analyses, and negotiation skills. He compared FDI attraction with fishing. “They [foreign investors] don’t just come – you have to go fishing for them. You have to cast out the right kind of bait, know which ocean to fish in, and have the skill to bring them in. So I wish you all good fishing. And please go catch that big tuna,” he said.
The word “competition” threaded the sessions, reiterated or implied by both speakers and trainees. Stephen Fitzpatrick, chief of the USAID’s Local Government Division, Office of Economic Growth, stressed that FDI is a very serious and “highly competitive global game.” He said a Ukrainian city trying to attract an investor will compete against other cities not only in Ukraine but also Belarus, Poland, the Czech Republic, or even South-East Asia.
Mr. Fitzpatrick said USAID strongly supports local economic growth within Ukraine, and called foreign direct investments “one of the key ingredients for this.” Citing the key role that FDI has played in galvanizing local, regional and national markets in the transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe, he said “here in Ukraine we see a lot of potential in terms of FDI. We are very excited about that.”
The spirit of competition seemed to catch the trainees, as some of them tried to highlight investment advantages of their communities while merely introducing themselves. Oleksandr Osovets from Novohrad-Volynsky, Zhytomyr Oblast, said they have created favorable investment climate in the city, and boasted of about 1,000 hectares of land plots available for an industrial park. Roman Chaplyk, who represented Lviv, did not forget to mention that his city is just 70 kilometers from the European Union border. Even closer to the EU border is Kovel, Volyn Oblast, 60 km from Poland; but in addition it is 60 km from Belarus, according to Dmytro Korenha. However, Chernivtsi may win this game of distances the next year, when Romania is expected to become an EU member, and the city will find itself some 30 km from EU border, said Dmytro Pulynets.
The first cycle of the certification program, developed by a team of the best Ukrainian, Czech, Scottish and US LED experts, started on March 1, 2006, to become the first step made in Ukraine toward training of FDI professionals for local governments and public administration agencies.
On July 19, 2006, a ceremony was held to certify the first graduates of the program. Certificates of FDI specialists were given to 21 representatives from various Ukrainian regions, including officers of state institutions, nongovernmental organizations, and local governments, who underwent intensive training under the program and passed rigorous examinations in all aspects of FDI attraction.