Aleksandr Vilkul, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast Governor and Foundation for Effective Governance presented a regional development strategy. Some questions arise in this regard...

 

Dnepropetrovsk Oblast Governor Aleksandr Vilkul has plans to devise a development strategy for his region. The Foundation for Effective Governance founded by Rinat Akhmetov undertakes to help him meet this objective. According to the Foundation’s Managing Director Nataliya Izosimova, this organization has a quite impressive budget of USD 50m for such purposes. The Foundation has already been realizing the regional development projects in Donetsk Oblast and the city of Lviv. Now, with the upcoming local government elections, the experts of the Foundation are assigned to develop a strategic plan for the Dnepropetrovsk Oblast.

 

“Following an in-depth analysis of the competitiveness, the Foundation’s experts selected Dnepropetrovsk region as the most promising region for the new project,” stated Nataliya Izosimova during a meeting in the office of Dnepropetrovsk Regional State Administration. “It is one of the most powerful regional economies in Ukraine and influences the country’s economy as a whole. Moreover, the region has capabilities and commitment of the local government to implement this project."

 

To this end, the Foundation for Effective Governance chose international consultancy Monitor Group after a tender. According to Andrew Swart, a representative of Monitor Group, by October 2010 they will identify the priority clusters – the industries with a great potential to boost the Dnepropetrovsk region’s competitiveness. These clusters will become a foundation for development and implementation of the regional strategy. “We will prefer the clusters that involve many big businesses as well as SMEs. Development of the clusters will encourage job creation in the region,” promised Mr Swart.

 

The Governor called the clusters “the locomotives for growth” that “would automatically induce the development in the related industries”. According to Mr Vilkul, construction, agriculture and education can be those locomotives. “Of course, mining and metals, a large taxpayer industry, plays a big role in the region. However, since the industry is export-oriented, this fact negatively affected the regional economy during the crisis. To ensure a stable performance, other industries able to stabilize the economic situation should be developed. The diversified economies were least susceptible to the global crisis.” According to the Governor, the diversified Dnepropetrovsk region, in its turn, is able to stabilize the national economy thanks to its capabilities. An interesting fact is that along with the mining and metals the regional strategy will unlikely include the rocket and space industry as a region’s development priority.

 

Similar approaches to development planning can’t but raise concerns as during the presidential election the former Governor Viktor Bondar warned of a risk for Dnepropetrovsk to become “one of Donetsk’s suburbs”. Probably, this was the reason why not every meeting participant shared the Governor’s enthusiasm. Some CEOs and entrepreneurs believed that the economic crisis was not over yet and the situation in the region was far from being good. Even Yuri Vilkul, the Governor’s father and a Member of the Oblast Council, had certain doubts. He reminded that Viktor Yanukovych’s election programme “Ukraine for People” included improvement of living standards and increase of life expectance. “I understand that boosting competitiveness and encouraging the economic growth is important but how will the President’s objectives fit into the strategy?” he noted.