Ukrainian Public Servants Learn Economic Development Practices on Study Tour in Scotland
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(L to R) Ewen Peters, consultant strategist and economist, Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Glasgow, tells the story of Scottish Enterprise development to study tour participants Anton Kryzhanivsky and Yuriy Shramko, heads of departments within the State Agency for Investment and National Projects Management of Ukraine, and USAID LINC Regional Competitiveness Planning Advisor Dušan Kulka |
June 28 – July 1, 2011 — USAID LINC organized and conducted a study tour to Scotland for a group of Ukrainian local, regional and national-level public servants engaged in economic development matters to learn from the Scottish experience in promoting regional competitiveness and local economic development, and stimulating entrepreneurship and investment.
With the main focus on foreign direct investment attraction and regional development practices, the tour covered a much wider range of topics including Scotland’s economic development model, development of industrial sites and innovation parks, citizen participation in decision making, environment protection, and the role of tourism in economy.
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View of Clydebank’s developing areas (top) from the Clydebank Titan Crane (bottom) – a 150 feet tall shipyard structure now used as a tourist attraction |
The participants also studied the role of the tour’s host organization – the Scottish Enterprise, a government agency in charge of regional development, investment promotion and tourism development.
A significant part of the study tour was dedicated to the issues of economic regeneration of territories – in Glasgow, Ravenscraig, and Clydebank.
Glasgow – Scotland’s largest city – has recently managed to get rid of its former ill fame of a hard-drinking, gang-ridden, working-class town in a successful rebranding campaign to turn it into a tourist destination and an investment-appealing location.
Ravenscraig is an area in North Lanarkshire, once famous for its hot strip steel and now undergoing a major redevelopment after 1992, when the steel mill was shut down. In Clydebank, a town in West Dunbartonshire, the major employer, a shipyard, closed in 2001.
The three cases were used to exemplify different approaches to solving problems – publicly led rebranding and area regeneration projects including public-private partnerships.
Selection of Scotland for the study tour was due to the fact that, according to USAID LINC experts, Ukraine has a potential for developing a number of industries in which Scotland has competitive advantages.
