On May 12, 2016, the Forum “The partnership of business and local government as the basis of well-balanced development of Energodar city” was held in the city of Energodar with the support of PLEDDG Project. Among the participants were representatives of local executive bodies, business community, general public and mass media as well as experts and consultants of PLEDDG Project. They discussed key problems and obstacles in small and medium enterprises development faced by local business community. Moderators of the discussion were PLEDDG experts Valeriy Kokot and Ihor Lepyoshkin.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Canada to Ukraine Roman Washchuk attended the forum. According to the Ambassador, holding such a forum will enable efficient dialogue between local government and small and medium enterprises as well as will make cooperation of local government, general public and business community more fruitful.
PLEDDG consultants L.Olenkovska, N.Kobylchak and B.Mosunov presented the results of Survey of Entrepreneurs with regard to problems facing the local business community, proposed possible ways of solving the problems and familiarized the participants with the results of express analysis of the local regulatory environment. They also suggested developing a “road map” of consistent steps to improve the local business climate.
The participants discussed weaknesses and strengths of the local business development in Energodar. Weaknesses included factors such as a mono-sectoral profile of the city, the outflow of the youth, imperfections in tax legislation, high interest rates provided by banking institutions, high cost of administrative services, substantial expenditures for electric power supply with a steady increase in energy prices, inappropriate conditions for business start-ups, lack of sufficient information on business development opportunities, land plots and real estate utilization. The overall stability in the city and purchasing power of the city population were among favorable factors for business development according to the results of the survey. The Development Strategy and General Plan for Energodar were also discussed at the forum.
