December 18, 2015, in Ivano-Frankivsk, PLEDDG signed Memoranda on Cooperation (MOC) with Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast State Administration, Ivano-Frankivsk oblast council and 4 partner cities in Ivano-Frankivsk oblast (Ivano-Frankivsk, Dolyna, Yaremche and Kolomyia) and launched cooperation for the region development.
Memoranda signing took place in the building of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast State Administration during the roundtable discussion on a topic “Areas of PLEDDG Project implementation”. The memoranda were signed by Project Director Oleksandr Kucherenko, deputy head of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast State Administration Igor Pasichniak, head of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast council O. Sych, mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk city R.R. Martsinkiv, mayor of Dolyna city V. Garazd, mayor of Kolomyia city I. Sliuzar, and mayor of Yaremche city V. Onutchak.
PLEDDG Project Delegation to Ivano-Frankivsk oblast included PLEDDG Senior Governance Advisor, Kadie Ward, Project experts Igor Lepyoshkin, Valeriy Kokot, Oleg Voitovych, and Solomiya Rozhko.
Igor Pasichniak, deputy head of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast State Administration, thanked for close cooperation and regular assistance to Ukraine from the Canadian government. Mr. Pasichniak added it was particularly pleasant for him that the Carpathian region has an opportunity to be a part of such PLEDDG and assured that Ivano-Frankivsk oblast has all opportunities and a great deal of experience in such a work for providing successful implementation of the project.
Oleksandr Sych, head of Ivano-Frankivsk oblast council stressed that he is glad to cooperate with Canadians who, some time ago, so gladly sheltered Ukrainian emigrants. Kadie Ward, Project representative, in her turn noted that the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada amounts about 1 million 200 thousand of persons and that those people made an important contribution to the development of the western part of Canada. That is why mutual support of both countries is so topical and important nowadays, stressed the Canadian expert.
Ruslan Martsinkiv, mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, thanked for granting an opportunity to Ivano-Frankivsk to participate in the Project. “In the course of PLEDDG Project implementation, we will obligatorily involve the community and church which traditionally plays a special role in public life. We are going to continue developing mechanisms of power openness including the project of on-line budget”, promised mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk.
Representatives of PLEDDG Project expressed confidence that the project implementation would bring good results. “We have enough examples of positive cooperation between our countries. Moreover, Ivano-Frankivsk can be called the leading one in the sphere of such projects implementation”, noted Kadie Ward. Ms. Ward added that Ivano-Frankivsk oblast was a very interesting region which was characterized by a good growth dynamics and big prospects. “We have visited all the cities we are going to cooperate with, and we are sure that such cooperation will positively influence promotion of democracy and economic development on the local level, creation of the favorable environment for small and medium business. The ultimate goal is to develop jointly tasks and trend which will positively promote the region development in the process of decentralization”, noted Ms. Ward.