Kyiv, October 12, 2018. More than 150 Ukrainian mayors with their deputies, foreign mayors, and members of the innovative business community gathered on Tuesday, October 9, in Kyiv at the International Mayors’ Summit, where they discussed how to make their cities better and why it’s important for business, city halls and civil society to work together. Cooperation among business, locals and city halls was the main topic of this year’s event.
“Urban experts confirm that sustainable growth and development can be achieved through rational growth, streamlining workflows according to the principle ‘fewer resources leads to better results,’ and supporting change,” Jaroslawa Johnson, President and CEO of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund, told participants.
Iryna Ozymok, founder of the International Mayors’ Summit, formulated the key objective of the summit thus: “I understand that the only way out for me as a citizen is to try to help cities to modernize. That’s why we set up the International Mayors’ Summit. It is one of the Western NIS Enterprise Fund’s anchor projects.”
Further discussions focused on collaboration as an instrument for transforming a city to serve the needs of its residents. The Summit was devoted to three main forms of cooperation: among municipalities, civil society and active citizens, between cities and business, and between sister cities. Visa Acting Group Country Manager in the CIS & SEE Dmytro Krepak commended decentralization reform in Ukraine.
The mayors of Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, and dozens of other cities of Ukraine, and Oslo Mayor Marianne Borgen and Kielce Mayor Wojciech Lubawski were in attendance. The international guest speakers at the Summit included Advisor to the NYC Mayor’s Office Gianluca Galletti, Dutch urban innovator Cees Donkers, CEOs of major enterprises and transnational corporations, and urban planning experts.
The JuniorZ project, aimed at promoting the development of sports among schoolchildren was a nice bonus event. Its founder, Oleksandr Pedan, awarded the mayors of Khmelnytskiy, Uzhhorod and Pereyaslav-Khmelnytskiy for their outstanding contribution to the development of the JuniorZ project. The International Mayors’ Summit also presented the winners of the all-Ukraine #мояідеямоємісто [#myideamycity] contest for the best ideas to transform the country’s cities. The three finalists presented their projects to the Ukrainian mayors.
IMS is organized by the Western NIS Enterprise Fund and supported by the Office of the Premier of Ukraine.
