My work for the municipality of Lviv
“Lviv, a city with nearly 1 million inhabitants, is located close to the Polish border. The number of employees working for the municipality is around 1200 people. Priorities in the field of economic development are tourism, business services and IT. Recently, we have completed several major projects which serve local economic development. We established economic clusters, developed a transport strategy and obtained additional funds for essential and strategic needs. At the moment I work within a working group for the upgrading of the municipal electric and road infrastructure. Unfortunately, the biggest problem we have is the limited funding for local economic development programmes. Nevertheless, working for the economic department at the municipality of Lviv is very satisfying and inspires me to come up with new ideas to promote and improve the city’s economy.”

Experiences in The Netherlands
“Throughout the internship at the municipality of Delft, I got the chance to explore the Dutch practice in the field of local economics. During this one week, we for instance met the head of the Chamber of Commerce. This was a great opportunity to see how the chamber works in Delft and to compare it with the Lviv Chamber of Commerce. Interesting as well as the introduction to the Delft Knowledge City Institution and the Knowledge Alliance of South Holland. It would be great if we could introduce an Alliance of Knowledge for Lviv in the future. In my opinion Lviv has great potential in the field of innovation and high-tech economic development.”

Back-Home-Action plan
“I am absolutely convinced that participation in the Talent for Governance Programme has strengthened my personal as well as professional skills. I strongly believe that by actively using these skills and disseminating them to my colleagues, my local government will get stronger and more successful. While the impact will mostly be noticed at the Lviv city council, I hope we can be a good example for other cities in the region.”

Update April 2013
“I’d like to share with you all new things that happened in my professional life. So, a year ago I got a promotion to the position “Specialist of Supporting Investment Projects Sector of Economic Development Bureau at Lviv City Council”. Last summer I decided to enter the Master course of Public Administration (specialisation: Public Service) at the National Academy of Public Administration, under the Office of the President of Ukraine. So now I’m a student and will be graduating next year. Also this year I’m finishing my PhD in Economics, but it is a long and bureaucratic process in Ukraine and it can last for the next year.”

“Talent for Governance helped me a lot, and I’m very thankful to you and your team!! “

Khrystyna Kovtalo