Source: Information portal Vezha
Lesia Kachor, June 11, 2018
How can a city facilitate economic growth and increase its competitiveness? How can it improve the citizens’ living standards? Where shall it find efficient funding sources for events and projects? This and many other things were the subject matter of the talk given by Ihor Lepyoshkin, PLEDDG Head of Experts Group, and Liubomyr Chornii, Head of the Board at the Center for Public Expertise.
On June 11, “HubVinnytsia” hosted the opening of “The Sources and Instruments for Local Economic Development Funding”. 22 men and women from PLEDDG partner cities of Vinntsia and Ivano-Frankivsk regions, namely from Zhmerynka, Khmilnyk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Yaremche, Dolyna, and Kolomyia came to Vinnytsia to participate in the three-day session.
During the training, on June 11-13, the participants will be introduced to the latest concepts and approaches to local economic development (LED) planning, learn basic LED funding instruments (budgeting, credit financing, investing, and granting) and discuss LED institutional basis and opportunities for intra-municipal collaboration, etc. The event is held with support of the international technical aid project “Partnership for Local Economic Development and Democratic Governance” (PLEDDG Project), which is implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and financed by Global Affairs Canada.
One of the PLEDDG Project’s tasks is to assist partner cities in implementing their development strategies. Funding the events and projects on the strategies for city development implies using efficient sources, instruments, and the mechanisms facilitating economic growth, increase of cities’ competitiveness, and improvement of citizens’ living standards. The training will pilot the practical guide on “Local Economic Development Menu”, developed as part of PLEDDG activity. The guide will be presented in autumn 2018 and will contain a review of LED funding basic sources and instruments and of the institutional mechanisms for LED implementation as well as interesting Ukrainian and foreign practices.
PLEDDG Project is aimed at enhancing the municipal sector in Ukraine, implementing efficient democratic governance, and accelerating economic growth by increasing competitiveness of Ukrainian cities in the field of governance democratization and local economic development; creating favorable environment for development of small and medium-sized businesses; supporting decentralization process and integrative development planning at local, regional, and national levels.
