Source: The official website of Berdiansk City Council
On December 5, 2017, the first joint session of the Working Commission on Development of Berdiansk Development Strategy and PLEDDG Project experts took place.
Volodymyr Chepurnyi, Mayor of Berdiansk, opened the meeting. Ihor Lepyoshkin, PLEDDG Senior Expert, Head of Experts Group, PLEDDG consultants Volodymyr Proskurnin and Mariia Porchuk, as well as Ms. Svitlana Kruhliak, PLEDDG Regional Coordinator in Zaporizhia oblast took part in the event. The objective of the session was to discuss preliminary studies with special attention to the community’s profile, mission, long-term vision, focus areas of Berdiansk’s development, and the short-term tasks regarding the development of the Strategy.
In his welcome speech, Volodymyr Chepurnyi emphasized that the Strategy was one of the essential documents on planning of the future city development and spurring positive changes. Berdiansk has already started the work on development of a draft of a new strategy. To this end, the city mayor’s order established the Working Commission consisting of the city council deputies, specialists of the structural units of the Executive Committee, representatives of undertakings and institutions, entrepreneurs, and the general public. Volodymyr Pavlovych mentioned that the Strategy was being formed with the help of experts and consultants of the international technical assistance project “Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance” (PLEDDG Project) which was being implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and funded by the Government of Canada. In 2015, Berdiansk and PLEDDG Project signed a Memorandum of Cooperation aimed at tackling issues of local self-governance development, business, development of the draft Development Strategy, etc.
Ihor Lepyoshkin noted that Berdiansk had already had its own positive experience in drafting of the Development Strategy and was one of the first cities in Ukraine to commence that work. Then, when the previous Strategy had expired, there was an urgent need for development of a new strategy with regard to external and internal changes in the city life. “The Strategy shall be, first of all, developed for its citizens and in the way they see their city. The city should be comfortable and livable, full of self-fulfillment and job opportunities, and be better that it is now in five-ten years on.” He also pointed to the great preliminary job done by the working group, as the consultants examined the materials and identified the necessity to process all the proposed changes on a regular basis. Generally speaking, a Development Strategy for the period of 10 years will be developed as a result of joint work with PLEDDG Project, with the Action Plan for its implementation under specific programs aimed at achievement of the targets and vision of the city. It means that PLEDDG Project will assist not only at the stage of development of the Strategy but also at the stage of its implementation. Apart from this, advisory assistance will be complemented with the financial one in the form of target-oriented financing programs.
Further, Liubov Akulenko, Head of the Department of Social and Economic Development and Regulatory Policy of the Economic Development Administration, presented the Berdiansk City Profile. As a descriptive and analytical part of the Strategy, the City Profile represented the social and economic analysis of development of Berdiansk for the period of 2012-2016.
Then, the working subgroups guided by PLEDDG consultants, Volodymyr Proskurnin and Mariia Porchuk, worked on the draft mission, long-term vision and focus areas for development of Berdiansk. PLEDDG consultants would further generalize all the groundwork. Further, according to the Roadmap for the draft Strategy development, a session on setting out the list of the strategic and operational objectives and tasks corresponding to the analysis and the areas for the city development will be held.