| Foundation for Effective Governance, Monitor Group and Dnepropetrovsk Region authorities have started elaborating the strategy for development of construction and agriculture clusters in the region.
Dnepropetrovsk Region has launched the project on elaboration of the Strategy for raising the regional and economic competitiveness. The corresponding cooperation agreement was signed on 5 October 2010 in Dnepropetrovsk by the Foundation for Effective Governance, a leading international consultancy Monitor Group, Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration and Dnepropetrovsk Regional Council.
“The main goal of the project is to contribute to regional development and establish cooperation between business, authorities and other representatives of civil community. The strategy we plan to develop will not illustrate some abstract economic theory. It will comprise the result-oriented objectives and key initiatives,” stated the Director of the Foundation for Effective Governance Natalia Izosimova at the agreement signing ceremony.
Earlier it was reported that one of the most efficient approaches in modern economic practice, a cluster approach, will be applied to raise competitiveness of Dnepropetrovsk region. The Foundation is successfully implementing similar projects in Donetsk Region and the City of Lviv and it will use this expertise in Dnepropetrovsk Region as well.
Specialists of the Foundation and Monitor Group have already identified the priority clusters for the region’s development: these are agriculture and construction. According to a partner of Monitor Group Andrew Swart systemic development of agriculture will allow Dnepropetrovsk Region to diversify its economy and make it less dependent on heavy industry. Development of construction is one of the prerequisites to upgrading obsolete assets and launching new infrastructure and production facilities.
“Dnepropetrovsk Region needs this urgently as depreciation of its assets exceeds 60%,” he underlined. Dnepropetrovsk Region was selected for the project after an in-depth analysis of all regions’ competitiveness. Specialists of the Foundation and members of the International Advisory Board of FEG marked the region as the best candidate for implementing the new regional project.
“Resources of Dnepropetrovsk Region and readiness and ability of local government to cooperate make us believe that the project will be a success. Dnepropetrovsk Region is “Ukraine in miniature” and its economic growth has a direct effect on the national economy. That is why the experience obtained in the course of the project will be useful for other regions as well,” reported former Prime Minister of Canada and Chair of the International Advisory Board Kim Campbell.
According to the Head of Regional Administration Aleksandr Vilkul Dnepropetrovsk’s economy has significant potential to develop dozens of industries and it has been already used efficiently. “Just in one year we moved to the 1st place from 19th on the social and economic rate of regional development. To stay as a leader and move to a higher quality level we are implementing fundamentally new approaches to regional governance. We are creating a modern, complementary and open for dialogue «power-business-society” system and changing the principles of government machine operation at the regional level – control over the business environment is not our primary function any more. My objective is to ensure the right environment for business development in the region as the President of Ukraine made me responsible to address the issue,” he underlined.
The project of Dnepropetrovsk economic development will consist of two stages. The first stage will last till January 2011 and include an in-depth analysis of the region’s economy and development of the strategy for raising the competitiveness of the region based on the selected priority clusters.
The second stage, which makes this project to stand out from many other regional development projects, includes development of structure and workable mechanisms to implement the recommendations underlying the strategy. At this stage the Foundation and consultants from Monitor Group will be helping the region to create capabilities to implement the strategy single-handedly.
Supervisory and controlling bodies will be established in the course of project implementation to ensure the efficiency of the process. In particular, the Steering Committee was put in place, which is chaired by the Governor Aleksandr Vilkul.
Profile
International Consulting Company Monitor Group (www.monitor.com) works with the world’s leading corporations, governments and social sector organizations to drive growth on the issues that are most important to them. The firm has extensive expertise in regional economic competitiveness and has worked on over 175 projects in 58 countries the last 20 years to analyze and develop economic development strategies in regions and countries around the world. Monitor Group was founded in 1983. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the firm employs over 1,500 people in 22 countries worldwide
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