Attracting investments for regional development
A collaborative training workshop, facilitated by the RGD Project as well as representatives of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast State Administration and the Zaporizhzhia Chamber of Commerce, was held on June 22nd and 23rd, 2009. The workshop, provided by a professional team of experts from Rivne oblast’s “InvestInRivne” initiative, focused on how to develop and attract innovative business ventures, an integral component to the oblast’s economic development and a priority of the Zaporizhzhia Regional Development Strategy until 2015. Training participants included representatives from the local business community as well as oblast authorities. Many of the attendees have participated the RGD Project’s Project Management and Strategy Implementation Training Program (PMT program), and for them developing skills for investment attraction and the development of funding proposals is now the next important step.
Drawing on their practical experience of developing Rivne oblast into the foremost Ukrainian oblast for business development, the “InvestInRivne” experts provided insight into how to create investment advantages and favorable conditions to attract investors. The experts found the internet to be a highly useful tool for locating potential investors; this reiterates the importance of the small-scale project, developed as part of PMT training that will establish a website providing an electronic investment map of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The project will locate available land parcels and real estate opportunities as well establish a database of investment projects in Zaporizhzhia. This will certainly result in job creation, new opportunities for business development, and increase the oblast’s competitiveness. The experts also cautioned the training participants to avoid overloading the website with too much information; it was their experience that information overload actually deterred investor interests.
The training workshop ended after an active discussion which revealed that further training in investment attraction for the region is necessary and that a future RDA could play an integral part in this process. The RDA could follow the model of the “InvestInRivne”, a non-profit organization, or be under the umbrella of the administration. After discussion, however, those in attendance agreed that using the “InvestInRivne” model is the best option for attracting investment for development of the region. The “InvestInRivne” experts agreed to assist their colleagues in Zaporizhzhia in further training and sharing their experiences and knowledge. Based on experiences of other Ukrainian oblasts in RDA development, this new organization is best to be established in the form of a pilot-project and would help identify the best legal and organization form for a Regional Development Agency (RDA) as well as build capacities for strong RDA leadership. Funding for this pilot project, in the form of grants, would need to be identified outside the oblast’s operating budget.
|
