PLEDDG Project helped organize International Mayors Summit in Kyiv

Source – Western NIS Enterprise Fund

More than 150 mayors and their deputies from throughout Ukraine along with their foreign colleagues from 10 countries are brought together in Kyiv at the International Mayors Summit. Local development experts and innovative business representatives attend the event along with the city authorities. For the third year in a row, the International Mayors Summit that is traditionally held in the Ukrainian capital becomes a unique platform for mayors from across Ukraine and their foreign colleagues to join the discussion and develop the best global practices of city management.

The Summit focuses on discussing the current urban development trends, innovations, presenting the best international and local experience of city management in various spheres and establishing a partnership between mayors, business and society as the local development stakeholders. Cooperation of business, citizens and city authorities is the main topic of this year’s International Mayors Summit.

“We organize the International Mayors Summit to ensure exchange of the best practices at both national and global level. This Summit aims at a search for methods of ensuring cities economic growth through cooperation with local business, society and other cities. The Summit allows our Fund to declare the importance of Ukrainian cities for the long-term prosperity and sustainable growth of our country”, noted Jaroslawa Johnson, President and CEO of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund.

The discussions focus on cooperation as a means for transforming the city to face the needs of the dwellers. The Summit encompasses three main areas of cooperation: city cooperation with civil society and active citizens, city cooperation with business and cooperation between twin cities.

“Mayors are city managers, whose decisions define the quality of life in the city, along with safety, public services efficiency and a number of other aspects. The world is in rapid flux, the challenges are springing up and technologies become a means of reform. We made a platform to facilitate a global exchange of decisions that will benefit the quality of life. The Summit is more than just a conference since we prioritize a format that drives you from the first encounter to the implementation of solutions”, – said Iryna Ozymok, Founder of the International Mayors Summit.

City leaders from Ukraine and other countries, local development experts and business leaders meet up to discuss global trends in local economic development, opportunities and prospects of engaging business, the public and a wider range of citizens to implementing changes in the cities of Ukraine and around the globe.

The event is attended by the mayors of Kyiv, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, and dozens of other cities of Ukraine. The foreign guests’ cohort comprises Mayor of Oslo Marianne Borgen, Mayor of the Polish city of Kielce Wojciech Lubawski and a number of city leaders coming from overseas. Moreover, the Advisor to the New York City Mayor’s Office Gianluca Gallletto, urbanist of Eindhoven Cees Donkers, and a number of other urban experts came up as the Summit speakers.

The topic of this year’s event allows for accentuating a presentation on business as a stakeholder of the city’s transformation process. The best projects of Ukrainian cities cooperation are awarded by IMS partners at Summit. The JuniorZ project, aimed at promoting sports among schoolchildren served as a nice bonus, presented by Olexandr Pedan.

Moreover, the International Mayors Summit presupposes the announcement of the #myideamycity campaign winners. Three finalists presented their city-transforming projects to the Ukrainian mayors.

The Summit is organized by the Western NIS Enterprise Fund under the patronage of the Prime Minister of Ukraine.

The exclusive partner of the Summit is Visa. The partners of this year’s Summit: Datagroup, AvtoKapital company – the official importer of Mercedes-Benz in Ukraine, Daimler AG, “Kerameya”, “Danfoss Ukraine”, “Interprojekt GmbH”, “Imperiya vody”, “iC consulenten Ukraine”, “SUP”, Ukrainian Entrepreneurs Union, Bigmedia, German Society for International Cooperation GIZ, international technical assistance project “Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance Project” (PLEDDG), “Energy Efficient Cities of Ukraine” Association, Association of Small Cities of Ukraine and CANactions. The information partner of the event is the American Chamber of Commerce. Media partners of the event are KyivPost, Business Ukraine, Liga.net, Obozrevatel, New Time, delo.ua, RBC Ukraine, ZNAJ.UA and PolitekA.