The Economic Development Program is part and parcel of the SBEDIF Project and is to provide coordination of its constituent parts and general information on the reformation of economy.

Economic Development Program is to assist with the compilation and implementation of plans and programs of regions and oblast economic development, which will coordinate the support of small business development in priority trends. This process requires an information base in the form of computerized system of economic data. This will ensure strategic economic planning and allow businessmen to conduct marketing research of the market - to get to know about raw and human resources available in the oblast and its regions, the availability of communication lines and services, financial, educational establishments, etc.

Economic Development Program forms the basis for the successful implementation of the program of support of small business, loan fund, trade missions and business incubator, which are to use this information data base and strategies in the development of separate regions and the oblast in general.

Local economic development plays a unique role. It represents interests of both the community (regional or city) when coordinating business development through regional or city administrations which provide land, facilities, and the private sector as a representative of a business wishing to operate within this territorial unit.

The aim of the Economic Development Program is to promote enterpreneurial culture through the development of economic institutions which would attract new businesses to this region and expand existing businesses which means job creation and, as a result, income flow into the local budget.

The experience of economically developed countries, such as the USA, Canada, western European countries, shows that such programs are a vitally important part of community’s successful and ongoing economic development, and are supported by budget funding from various levels (state, oblast, regional, or city), grants obtained from sponsoring agencies and foundations, and also to some degree from private enterprises.

OBJECTIVE OF THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Economic Development Program includes 4 main types of interrelated services:

1. Specialists' professional development in regional economic development.

This part of the Economic Development Program is directed at professional development of government officers, who work in the government Economic Development Departments, as well as people interested in getting some information concerning regional economic development and strategic economic planning.

Its mission is to establish partnership in training and professional development between the lvano-Frankivsk Association of Economic Development (which will unite specialists and those who want to assist with regional economic development); regional educational establishments; specialists, who have practical experience and have been trained in Canada, and the Business Center. Members of the lvano-Frankivsk Association of Economic Development will identify the training courses required; teachers of educational establishments and specialists will assist with the preparation of seminars; Business-Center will provide the facility, office equipment and other technical aids required.

2. Use of Economic Data Base

The goal of this part of the Economic Development Program is the establishment and implementation of economic data base. The data base structure was formed to meet the needs of the economic development officers in the oblast (rayons, cities) and businessmen.

At the moment we find information located in different isolated departments and offices. This causes duplication in the gathering, accumulation and renewal, and also impossibility of operational and qualified use and sharing of this information. The creation of the economic data base will allow: appropriate analysis of opportunities of the region's development, use of available resources , delivery of marketing research for the coordination of the development of industries and types of production, study by the businessmen of the opportunities for expansion of the existing business and development of new ones.

3. Resource Center

The purpose of the Resource Center was to establish and support the Center with the most up-to-date information materials (books, reports, magazines, CDs, audio- and video materials) in economic development and small business. The Center is for the use of economic development officers, businessmen and all interested people.

4. Strategic Economic Planning

The goal of this part of the Economic Development Program is the formation and establishment of the stable process of strategic economic planning (SEP) of the development of regions and oblast in general. This process may be carried out on the basis of the SWOT analysis of the region with the use of economic data base, the analysis of economic sectors and identification of priority trends of its development, involvement initiative groups to the process of planning consisting of the leaders form the local population, compilation of strategic plans of the development of regions and their coordination at the oblast level.

Part and parcel of the process of strategic economic development is the compilation and implementation of strategic and marketing plans of the regions development, publishing of community profiles aimed at sharing information on rayons and oblast for the development of new businesses and the mobilization of investments and additional resources. SEP will assist with the creation of new jobs, the production of goods and services in order to meet the needs of the local population and inflow to the city budget.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM
IMPLEMENTATION ENVIRONMENT

Economic Development Program will be implemented in the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast and operates here as a pilot project which can be further extended onto other Ukraine oblasts.

Economy of the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, as well as Ukraine as a whole, is in the state of transition to market economy, and is characterized by high unemployment rate, excessive taxation, lack of information, absence of a common coordinated economic policy, and insufficient financial resources.

At the same time, considerable small business development, property reform, and economy decentralization take place on the background of general democratization of the society.

All this requires close concentration on regional economic development through strategic economic planning. This process should be implemented with local population involvement to the creation of regional strategic economic development plans incorporating vision of the local community. Friendly information environment, which will determine and coordinate regional economic development priority areas, will allow entrepreneurs to acquire information about their potential market and accumulate necessary resources and infrastructure.

Large financial deficit creates an impending necessity for creating regional promotion institutions and distributing promotion profiles, booklets, and, last but not least, using vast Internet resources for investment and business attraction.

Ivano-Frankivsk Association of Economic Development (IFAED) has been formed in the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast aimed at solving problems of regional economic development, strategic planning, and community involvement into these processes. Association's activity is a continuation and a complement to that of the Economic Development Program.

Economic Development Program occupies a niche at the rayon and oblast’s city levels and will coordinate its activity with other general regional programs implemented by state oblast economic departments and IFAED as stipulated in the cooperative agreement.

Economic Development Program SERVICES

The Economic Development Program offers following types of services:

1. Professional development of specialists in the field of local economic development through training:

• seminars for officers of economic departments and other organizations on issues concerning regional economic development and strategic economic planning as “Strategic Economic Planning of the Regional Development”, “Strategic Economic Planning of the Development of the Enterprise”, “Involving local resources in the process of the regional development” , “Making information data bases for the regional development” , “Development of small cities and villages” “Regional marketing planning”, etc;
• computer analysis courses of economic data bases for computer software training (EXCEL and others) in the economic analysis;
• Membership in the Ivano-Frankivsk Association of Economic Development allows to exchange experience, set areas where professional development of certain specialists will be necessary, provide consulting in regional economic development, and implement specific regional economic development projects.

2. Economic database.

Economic database is available for use by both regional economic development officers and local entrepreneurs.

The following services are offered:

• view and search of information with the assistance of Business Center consultants;
• development of specifically-oriented information bulletins according to the client’s requirements;
• marketing or other specific economic research using the database (for instance marketing research for regions or individual businesses for the purpose of studying potential markets, obtaining information on similar products and their pricing, demand assessments, etc.);
• computer analysis of economic databases: analysis of specific problem, indicated by the client, usinf professional software packages;
• Creating of the economic data base software structure (for example, creating economic data base structure for the economic of the city or raion, creating of the data base structure of the enterprise or a group of enterprises which work at the local market).

3. Strategic Economic Planning.

Economic Development Program provides help to the local regions on creating initiative work groups consisting of local community representatives to participate in the strategic economic planning process.

It is possible to create strategic economic development plans, marketing plans and regional information bulletins.

Presently, the following services are offered:

• consulting in regional development and strategic planning by Business Center or Ivano-Frankivsk Association of Economic Development;
• assistance in creating initiative working groups from locals who might help to work out the regional development plans, encourage their work during the period of formation and stabilization of such a group, training on group work methods through taking part of business consultants at the meetings of such groups;
• creating “teams” on solving specific problems or implementing specific projects at the enterprises, training on how projects implementation;
• carrying out the economic analysis in the region (or enterprise) defined by the client (for example, SWOT analysis which gives an opportunity to analyze strengths and weaknesses of the region or enterprise, define the possibilities of the development and priority activity areas);
• development of the strategic economic development plan in the region (or enterprise) defined by the client, that is on the basis of the perspective vision of the development of the object, market analysis, analysis of availability and possibility to attract resources, creating measures to reach for the aims, an alternative activity plan in case of contingencies, marketing plan and other measures envisaged by the strategic economic planning;
• development of the marketing plan in a region (or enterprise) defined by the client. The plan envisages creation of favorable economic, investment and information conditions to achieve the goal;
• development of the oblast, rayon, city or company information bulletin structure which will contribute towards achieving a certain goal (for example, to accentuate on the investment attractiveness of the object, attract business to the territory, invite a tourist, etc.);
• business plans implementation, especially for the middle-size business to receive investments or start a new business project.

PROGRAM CLIENTS

Economic Development Program is oriened mostly towards cooperation with economic officials on city, rayon, or oblast level, and in the future will expand its activity to cooperation with other state and non-state organizations working in the sphere of regional economic development (like, for instance, IFAED or Statistics Department), enterpreneurs and other individual interested in economic development of the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

Considering the uniqueness of this program, as it was described previously, this cooperation will be bilateral: community representatives interested in their region’s economic development, business development, inflow to local budgets, and job creation on one hand, and entrepreneurs interested in starting a business in a priority sector and within a region that provides friendly economic institutions (unoccupied land and facilities leasing and sales, simplified registration process, and taxation privileges).

Last updates were made 18-11-99

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© SBEDIF Business Centre, 1997