Due to investing to the development of small cities

Under the current conditions of incompleteness of transformation changes and strengthening of local self -government mechanisms, the urgent problem is the formation of an effective regional investment policy, which would comprehensively take into account the level of economic development and investment potential of small cities in Ukraine. Today, small cities are the largest number of cities in quantitative composition, many of which are administrative centers of districts that live about 22 million urban and rural residents, that is, almost half of the population. These cities play an important role in shaping the settlement network. Much of small cities are monofunctional cities whose specialization industries or food industry. The narrow specialization of production in many small cities has led to the dependence of the economy on the stability of the work of one or two enterprises, which in the modern period has threatened the possibility of further existence of many small monofunctional cities. The monofunctional specificity of the industry over a third of small cities of Ukraine has created a complex situation primarily in the field of labor market formation and functioning and significant tension in all other areas of the city’s life. The consequence of the unfavorable socio-economic situation in monofunctional cities was the high level of poverty of their population.

Today there is a project “Innovation, information, development. Increasing the investment attractiveness of small cities of Chernihiv region ”, which is implemented by the Center for European Cooperation (Poland), the Polissya Fund of International and Regional Studies and the Chernihiv Regional Center for Investment and Development with the support of the Polish Assistance Program, which is funded under the program“ Cooperation for Development ”in 2013.

This project of Ukrainian-Polish cooperation, funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, is designed to increase the attractiveness of small cities of Chernihiv region for investing. This should happen by transferring the experience of neighboring Poland in attracting investment in small cities in the country.

For this purpose, from July 15 to July 21, a training visit of representatives of small cities of Chernihiv region to Poland was held, which aimed at practical development of investment projects and an attempt to implement them.

In 2013, Poland was first recognized as the most attractive to investors among Central and Eastern countries. This is evidenced by a survey conducted by the Polish-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry among more than 1.5 thousand foreign enterprises in 16 countries that have investments in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe.

This is the result of the systematic and stable development of Poland over the last few years. The study also demonstrates the expectations of entrepreneurs who want Poland to guarantee good conditions for business activities in the coming years.

According to the research, 38% of respondents who have offices in Poland want to increase their investments in the country in 2013. The survey also showed that 94% of firms would again invest their investments in Poland.

Participants of the visit during the visit of the cities of the region of Lower Silesia in particular Wroclaw, Dzierzhoniuv, Valbzhi, and a tinner, where were able to see the real actions of the authorities to increase the investment attractiveness of small cities, were able to see and get acquainted with the work of attracting investors.

In order to attract investors, especially foreign, small cities were outlined by the management of small cities:

-to create forecast and analytical services of strategic planning at city councils;

– to find the benefits and advantages of their cities, to the management of each city clearly, in the production of which goods and services, this city can have competitive advantages over others;

– to analyze the opportunities for attracting investments for the implementation of specific local projects;

– take measures to develop infrastructure and services.

It should be noted that the sustainable development of small cities in is possible only under the conditions of organization of city authorities on the basis of self -government. In this case, not only the active economic activity of the city council, but also the activities of the residents themselves becomes the fundamental position of the authorities of the small city, who, through participation in public organizations and associations, together with the authorities, will solve the ambitious tasks of urban development.

Small cities in Poland are an important component of the country’s economic and social potential. Twenty years ago, most of them were experiencing a decline caused by a change in the structure of production, a change in political status and a decrease in government investments in building their infrastructure. Thus, in connection with the closure of coal mines, Valbzhah was released by 40,000 employees, which led to a crisis in the labor market and caused a number of social problems.

Therefore, involvement of investors was closely linked to general economic issues and used a number of tools in various fields of activity.

In order to successfully attract investments, local governments began to establish close contacts with entrepreneurs, providing them with support and assistance. The investor’s trust in power is a guarantee of success, this banal thesis was confirmed in Derzhoniu, where re -investing by foreign investors began to be carried out after the burgomaster re -election for a new term. That is, along with socio-economic development, development of market infrastructure, also emphasized the relationship between entrepreneurship and government, which was manifested in the readiness of local authorities to cooperate with investors and was manifested in a stable inverse dependence between the size of the administrative apparatus and the amount of investment attracted.

It is logical to understand Poland’s high rating on investment attractiveness. For comparison, according to the DOING BUSINESS-2012 investment rating, the World Bank and IFC, Ukraine is now ranked 152nd from 183 countries.

The dynamic development of small cities of the region Lower Silesia ensured innovation, efficient use of EU funds, highly developed infrastructure, as well as the creation of free economic zones, in particular participants visited the Valbzh Ves “Invest-Park”, where such companies as Toyota, IBM, ELOCTROLUKTROLUCT.

The most important thing that received small cities from the arrival of a foreign investor is new jobs and taxes that allow local communities to resolve the issues of territorial development.

Therefore, based on the Polish experience, strategic task for small cities of the Chernihiv region is the maximum simplification of the procedure for attracting investments in the region, the introduction of modern forms of partnership of power and investors aimed at harmonization of interests of all parties.

Author:J.V. Deriy