As a result of the audience voting, Zhytomyr with 82.22% of votes is ahead of Poltava with 17.78%. A number of tasks successfully performed by the leaders of these two cities included the following question: what, in your opinion, are the main reasons for studying and staying in Zhytomyr or in Poltava?
“Poltava has centuries-old traditions of many universities, one of which is the Poltava Pedagogical University. We have created all the conditions in the city to provide our citizens with opportunities to both receive the best education and get well-paid jobs, because the city has both well-developed sports, oil and gas and industrial sectors,” the secretary of the Poltava City Council Oleksandr Shamota said.
“First of all, we do not need an industrial city, but we need a city with a healthy environment, which is completely energy efficient while having beautiful parks and developed infrastructure, so that every Zhytomyr resident is happy to live and spend time with the whole family here,” the Zhytomyr city head Serhiy Sukhomlyn said.
“Your cities are an example of how Ukrainian cities should develop, because it is a modern nation that faces a happy future with inspiration and confidence. We would like to see friendly and smiling people in your cities. I would like you to ask yourself the main question: how do you see your cities in world rankings? As for me, I will bring investors both in Zhytomyr and Poltava, because we work only with the best and most progressive cities. We would implement all of our best practices in both Poltava and Zhytomyr,” the Director of the Ukraine Investment Promotion Office Danylo Bilak said.
“The local enterprises should be transparent and have international financial reporting to attract investments into your cities. There will be problems with investors without these aspects. Do not be afraid, engage auditors and pay special attention to the education and training of qualified specialists, as today the industrial production in Ukraine is even better than in Europe,” the Concorde Capital Director Oleksandr Hryban said.
As a reminder, on November 23, 2018, the mayors of the most progressive Ukrainian cities according to the rating of ease of doing business in Ukraine (Regional Doing Business 2018) Oleksandr Shamota from Poltava and Serhiy Sukhomlyn from Zhytomyr met on the City Invest Battle stage as part of the RED PM DAY 2018 and the 2nd National Forum on Construction Project Management.
The City Invest Battle was moderated by the International Mayors Summit founder and Local Economic Development Program manager at the Western NIS Enterprise Fund Iryna Ozymok and the BRDO Board Member and SUP’s Vice President Olena Shulyak.