From November 18 to 22, 2024, a Ukrainian delegation consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, regional development agencies and their supervisory boards from all over Ukraine visited Romania on a study visit. This trip was organized by the project “Ukraine’s Cohesion and Regional Development”, UCORD, which is supported by Switzerland via the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation by NIRAS Sweden AB. Its partners in organizing the visit were the Romanian agency ARD Nord-Est and the European Association of Development Agencies (EURADA).
It is worth noting that not only the representatives of six partner regions of the UCORD project, Vinnytsia, Volyn, Sumy, Ternopil, Khmelnytskyi and Odesa regions, but also all other regional development agencies (RDAs) of Ukraine joined this trip. After all, according to the head of the project Maryna Bryl, the UCORD project first of all aims to unite the Ukrainian RDAs, to provide everyone with equal opportunities for study and establishing connections, and to form a network of strong regional agencies throughout the country, which are capable of becoming drivers of the recovery and development of regions.
On the first day of the visit, the Ukrainian delegation visited the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration. The meeting in this ministry allowed the delegation members to better understand the framework policy of regional development of Romania and the role of regional development agencies in it, as well as to get acquainted with the possibilities of the Interreg Next Romania-Ukraine cross-border program, the new stage of which will start soon.
Currently, the Ministry is implementing 16 such projects: 8 of which are at the national level, 8 at the regional level. And Romanian RDAs play an important role in their implementation. The experience shared by Mrs. Teodora Preoteas, the State Secretary of the Ministry, was especially useful for representatives of Ukrainian ministries who were part of the delegation, because these ministries have a key role in the future reconstruction of Ukraine with the help of technical aid, in particular the EU.
The representatives of the Ukrainian delegation spent the second day of the study visit in the city of Piatra Neamt, where the headquarters of ARD Nord-Est – the regional development agency of the largest North-Eastern region in Romania is located. This agency, the experience of which was inherited by the representatives of the Ukrainian ADRs, has made an impressive journey from a small office with 4 employees to a powerful organization with 250 employees and which manages projects and programs with billion-dollar budgets.
ARD Nord-Est has its own recipe for success, which the agency’s CEO Vasile Asandei shared with the Ukrainian delegation:
“To achieve success, you need to value people, believe in your ability to change and develop your regions, strategically plan, coordinate and implement, follow all procedures and legal requirements, involve as many stakeholders as possible in cooperation, and never stop looking for ways to innovate.”
Why was the Romanian agency ARD Nord-Est chosen for the exchange of experience? First of all, because of the similarity between it and Ukrainian regional development agencies, which lies in their organizational form, since Romanian ARDs are also non-governmental, non-profit organizations. Just like the Ukrainian agencies, the Romanian ones started as small, uncertain institutions, but now they have turned into powerful drivers of regional development that engage different levels parters in dialogue as widely as possible and effectively lobby the interests of their region not only at the national but also at the international level, having an office in Brussels. Ukrainian RDAs have every chance of becoming just as powerful and influential in the future.
Also during the visit, the Ukrainian delegation visited the Romanian county of Jassy, where they saw the tools used in Romania to ensure economic growth in the regions. First of all, it is business promotion through the creation and development of industrial parks. Two such industrial parks – “Letchani” in the Lassy commune of Letchani and “Myroslava” in the municipality of Myroslava – were shown to the delegation members. It is worth noting that to encourage businesses to locate their production facilities in industrial parks, Romania provides benefits, both at the national and local levels. These include tax breaks for park beneficiaries, as well as grants of 3,000 euros for start-ups.
Jassy County also specializes in medicine. In particular, the Gr. Popa University of Medicine and Pharmacy is located here, the simulation center which the delegation also visited. And here they were presented with the IMAGO-MOL cluster – a regional research and innovation ecosystem in the field of healthcare, which is a flagship initiative of the regional development agency ARD Nord-Est.
The achievements and stable development of Jassy County demonstrate how important it is to attract investments wisely, using the most of the regions’ potential and strengths, combining the efforts of science, local government, residents, business and civil society. And the locomotive of all these processes is the regional development agencies.
At the end of the visit, the Ukrainian delegation and the ARD Nord-Est team discussed what steps Ukrainian agencies should take in light of the Romanian experience. Everyone came to the common opinion that the main condition for the success of both Ukrainian and Romanian agencies is their ability to make decisions and achieve the set goal through broad partnership and the involvement of all stakeholders. Such a capacity can only be achieved through unquestionable professionalism, as ARD Nord-Est has done. The agency has gained the trust not only of the central authorities, the counties of its region and other Romanian partners, but also of the European Commission. This was facilitated, first of all, by the agency’s adherence to clearly defined rules, procedures, principles of transparency and accountability in its activities.
“Agencies must be so professional as to build partnerships with stakeholders at different levels on equal terms,” said Ilona Postemska, Senior Program Coordinator at the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine.
This is precisely one of the objectives of the UCORD project: to promote the growth of professionalism and strengthen the capacity of these institutions using the example of pilot RDAs.
Representatives of Ukrainian RDAs were inspired by the experience of Romania and are already ready to implement some interesting ideas and best practices, in particular, to promote networking of representatives of RDA supervisory boards from all over Ukraine for peer-to-peer exchange of experience, to support initiatives (hubs, clusters) that will later turn into full-fledged RDA partners, to implement cluster approaches in various sectors, to create training centers and to conduct European integration educational activities in the regions.
And most importantly, this study visit launched the process of networking all Ukrainian RDAs. In particular, one of the delegation members, Director of the Department of Strategic Planning and Regional Policy of the Ministry of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine Serhiy Soroka, suggested gathering the directors of all RDAs at the beginning of next year and discussing problems, plans, and prospects, because it is easier to find ways to solve even the most complex problems together.
UCORD will definitely support such an initiative. Here is what UCORD project manager Marina Bryl said about it:
We want to transfer knowledge and experience as much as possible so that all Ukrainian agencies become the same powerful tool for regional development as the agencies in Romania. This trip showed how important live communication and networking are, created not artificially, but according to needs. We need to exchange knowledge, experience and mistakes both inside and outside Ukraine. Therefore, we will introduce gatherings that will unite the RDAs and provide them with the opportunity to share experiences, help each other, and conduct dialogue among themselves and with partners. I am sure that everything is possible if we work together.”
The study visit to Romania demonstrated that Ukrainian RDAs can and will be strong and influential drivers of regional development. The key to their successful activities is unquestionable professionalism, adherence to clearly defined rules, procedures, principles of transparency and accountability in their activities, as well as networking among themselves to exchange experience, help each other and have a fruitful dialogue with partners.