Source: Official website of Vinnytsia City Council
On August 10, 2017, the first meeting of Vinnytsia City Council took place, during which participants discussed an action plan and analyzed undertaken activities. The Investment Attraction Program is implemented with support from Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance Project (PLEDDG), which is implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and financed by Canadian government.
“On November 28, 2014, Vinnytsia City Council adopted an Investment Attraction Program by 2020. Back then it was time-sensitive and goal oriented. However, since 2014 a lot of changes have happened in our country, leading to the change of government and a new vector of country development, including financial decentralization. The paradigm of our country’s development has been affected by major changes. In view of this, we have analyzed our program and realized that it needs updating. Our city has undergone a lot of changes as well. For example, two industrial parks have been registered in Vinnytsia, which play a big role in dealing with investors; therefore, it’s important that they feature in the Program. New program documents related to business development have been drafted jointly with our foreign partners. We are now about to introduce changes to the Program, which will to a great extent affect the outcomes of our work with potential investors”, said Vinnytsia Deputy Mayor Vladyslav Skalskyy.
Vitaliy Pohosyan, the Head of Department of Economics and Investment of Vinnytsia City Council, mentioned that among the changes that had already been implemented in the city were those related to improving investment prospects rating of Vinnytsia, launching an investment guide mechanism called “A guide for investors”, development of the concept of industrial park “Vinnytsia cluster of refrigeratory machine building”, selecting a leading company of Vinnytsia industrial park.
“Today the program defines a series of actions for city infrastructure development, administrative barrier elimination, creating conditions for industrial high-tech manufacturing, awareness building among investors. The program provides for a number of measures aimed at creating organizational and economic conditions for a revenue increase in both domestic and international investment in our city. The mechanism of combining the interests of local government and private business has been introduced, identifying its main priority as an investment market and innovative urban infrastructure development”, said Vitaliy Pohosyan.
Oleh Voytovych, PLEDDG Project Senior Expert in Intergovernmental Cooperation and Economic Development, presented a methodology and standards of work with investors for Vinnytsia.
“Our major focus is to integrate the Investment Attraction Program into existing programs under the umbrella of the Vinnytsia development strategy by 2020. This will be the standpoint of our principles, and we very much count on your understanding and cooperation. Attracting investment should be systematic work, which cannot be limited to a few booklets or a developed program. We cannot claim we do our best in investment attraction unless we apply a systematic approach. Therefore, we offer standards and methodology for working with investors in certain areas”, said Oleh Voytovych.
Among the proposed changes, there is creation of an investment platform for investors, designed as a web-portal containing information about business environment in the city, existing investment projects, available land resources and real estate assets, rules and regulations for new and active investors, etc. The Program is expected to be complemented with new ideas and insight. The final version of the program will be presented at the end of October 2017.