July 26, 2016, Khmilnyk - IER Leading Research Fellow and USAID "Leadership in Economic Fovernance (LEV)" Program expert Olha Krasovska took part in the round table titled "Regulatory barriers for SMEs in Khmilnyk and possible ways to overcome them", which was held in the city of Khmilnyk, Vinnytsya oblast, as a part of the project of creating the roadmap for SME development on local level, which is funded b the USAID LEV Program.
Olha Krasovska coordinates the roadmap development project. The aim of this project is to attract a broad range of stakeholders from business, local governemnt, and civil society to create roadmaps for SME development at the level of teritorrial communities or united teritorrial communities.
Business and local authorities of Khmilnyk, including city mayor Serhiy Resych and City Council representatives, took part in the round table discussion. The dicussion focused on the obstacles faced by entrepreneurs and the ways to overcome these obstacles and utilize opportunities for business. The participants of the discussion suggested the following ways to improve conditions for doing business in the city:
- Better informing of SMEs about changes in regulations and taxation
- Eliminating corruption risks in local regulatory acts
- Improving one-stop shop administrative services
- Creating business associations of active entrepreneurs
- Developing the cluster of SMEs that provide complimentary services to the city's health and resort sector
The next step of this project will be conducting focus groups with local businesses, which will discuss these and other ideas to improve business climate. The expected result of the project is creating a roadmap for SME development in Khmilnyk, which will include policy measures suggested by businesses and community of the city.
The round table was organized and hosted by Khmilnyk regional nonprofit organization "Pravo" ("Right"), which won the Roadmap competition in Vinnytsya oblast.
