Economic successes take place daily at the local level, and the goal of the USAID Local Economic Development Project (LED) is to help cities strategize and organize their economic potential to produce more jobs and increase investment.
Though local economic development may encompass many technical definitions and methodologies, the bottom line is that local economic development is a lasting process of strategic partnership between business, local government and other community stakeholders who help make their cities economically robust today, tomorrow and in years to come.
On behalf of the American people, we assist Ukrainian cities to form public/private committees that:
- analyze their city’s strengths, weaknesses and economic assets;
- use that information to set long-term objectives for strategic development;
- create a strategic economic development plan approved by the city council; and
- monitor the work of the city administrative unit charged with implementing the tasks articulated in the strategic plan.
When our work is finished, cities with which we worked and cities that studied our work through our communication campaigns will:
- know their competitive business assets;
- be developing those assets in a concerted, intelligent, continuous effort;
- be ready to offer those assets to investors, both foreign and domestic; and
- be thinking about constantly adding value to the business climate of their cities to ensure greater and greater economic dynamism and more jobs through ever-increasing investment.
The story of business|Ukraine is being written and will be written at the local level; local economic development is its creative process.