MCI — is an analytical tool to evaluate business climate in municipalities, including economic governance effectiveness. It is launched by the USAID Competitive Economy Program in Ukraine (CEP), in the partnership with Info Sapiens and the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER).

The purpose of the MCI is to stimulate local government leadership in economic development, identify regulatory barriers, corruption, and non-transparency that need to be overcome to improve the business climate. MCI aims to stimulate competition between cities in creating a favorable business climate. 

MCI is needed to: 

1. Evaluate the economic governance at the national and municipal levels.
2. Consider local businesses’ attitude when evaluating municipal business climate.
3. Rank cities by economic governance effectiveness and business-enabling environment.
4. Monitor changes in the effectiveness of economic governance and business climate in municipalities.

MCI will help businesses better understand and provide suggestions for improving the business environment in the city. MCI will provide a presentation of local businesses’ vision for entrepreneurship development policy. For investors, MCI can be the basis for decision-making on the feasibility of investing in cities. 

MCI will allow the municipal authorities to identify best practices and differences in cities’ business climate, identify "weaknesses", and opportunities for improvement. MCI can be a tool for dialogue between municipalities and the Central Government of Ukraine, help improve the business climate and disseminate best regulatory practices at the local and national levels.

Business associations, NGOs, and activists will be able to use MCI to advocate for change in their cities, drawing on the best practices from other cities. International donors can also use MCI to identify priority areas for donor support.

 PCM is an aggregate index consisting of 10 sub-indices (components), which assess various aspects of urban competitiveness:

1.      Starting a business
2.      Access to public property
3.      Transparency and data openness
4.      Compliance cost
5.      Taxes and duties
6.      Informal payments and corruption
7.      Security of operating a business
8.      Leadership of municipal authorities
9.      Development resources
10.    Support for innovations

Analytical report Municipal Competitiveness Index  2019/2020. Part 1. Analysis of research results (download)  

Analytical report Municipal Competitiveness Index  2019/2020. Part 2. Profiles of Municipalities (download) 

Questionnaire for business managers/owners (download) 

Detailed Methodology of Municipal Competitiveness Index (MCI) 2019-2020 Data Collection and Processing (download) 

Questionnaire for business managers /owners (download)