Mayors for Economic Growth

Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG)

P I O N E E R P R O J E C T S B R I E F

Improving business environment From the scope of the Pioneer Projects it is obvious that improving the institutional framework and hard infrastructure for business support services was the most needed local transformation in the region, with the overwhelming majority of projects aiming at creating or building capacity of business support services providers in their locality. All three Pioneer Projects in Moldova are designed to unlock the business develop-ment potential of Moldovan regions through establishing business support structures and institutions in the munici-palities with the highest capacity, thus turning them into three growth poles for

larger regions of the country. They are: Cimislia Municipality for the South Region (MD1) with a business incubator network, Edinets Municipality (MD2) for creation of an Industrial Park for the North Region, and the autonomous Gagauzia Region of Moldova (MD3), starting the Centre for Regional Information and Support.

The Municipality of Cimislia (MD1) is taking the lead in a coalition of business incubators and hubs in 7 neighboring municipalities, with the South Regional Development Agency and Organization

for Small and Medium Enterprises Devel-opment on board, in order to establish a regional network of business support service organizations focusing on SME clients.

A very similar idea is behind the project in Slavutych, Ukraine (UA6), which is designed to establish an efficient business support infrastructure serving the needs of business entities in the Slavutych region and several neighbour-ing communities of Chernihiv Oblast. Both these M4EG Pioneer Projects were conceived as a result of intermunicipal cooperation, which goes beyond the borders of the respective grantee munici-palities.

Increasing access to finance

The only Pioneer Project in Armenia (Sevan municipality, AM1), the projects proposed by Tbilisi city in Georgia (GE3), Hlybokain Ukraine (UA3), and one district of Belarus (Glubokoye BY2), are also focused on creating/upgrading business support infrastructure, which will be offering a broad range of services to local private sector entities, including training for SMEs, attracting investment, promot-ing local products, improving access to finance for private entities, etc.

Investing into comparative advantages

Rather than improving the business environment across the board, quite a few grant beneficiaries identified one high potential sector of the local economy where they want to concentrate their local economic development efforts. Two main sectors stand out, namely:

AGRICULTURE

Bragin district (BY1), Bolnisi Municipality (GE1), the cities of Dolyna (UA3) and Baranivka (UA2) see their future economic success in a highly developed agricultural sector. Offering better quality and a broad-er range of support services to rural entre-preneurs; modern approaches to growing, storing, marketing and selling local agricul-tural produce; organic farming; and facilitating cooperation between the engaged stakeholders are the main focus areas of these 4 pioneer projects.

TOURISM

Over the last couple of decades, the coun-tries of the Eastern Partnership region have improved their touristic potential turning into increasingly attractive destinations for international and domestic tourists.

4 new tourism locations in the region will receive support from the EU to improve tourism-related hard and soft infrastruc-ture, information and tourism services, and marketing and promotion of their tourism products.

Slavgorod district (BY3) in Belarus will be developing ecotourism through establish-ing an innovative tourism destination in the form of an Eco Park, and piloting a new tourism operation business model there.

In Ukraine, a regional brand of an “Apple Paradise” will be promoted through clustering activities in Severynivka (UA5), while the city of Nove Misto (UA4) will set up a cowboy ranch and turn it into a Wild West entertainment park. The Georgian city of Gori, closely associ-ated with the controversial figure of Stalin, is already attracting thousands of tourists wishing to visit his birthplace. The pioneer project in Gori Municipality (GE2) is focused on improving the tourism and city infrastructure in cooperation with Gori State Teaching University, so that the tourists can stay there longer and get acquainted with other numerous histori-cal sites and tourism opportunities that the municipality has to offer.

M4EG Pioneer Projects Directory

ARMENIAAM1 Sevan Municipality Sustainable Platform to Promote Innovation (SPPI)”

539,000 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 89%,

2018 – 2020

GEORGIAGE1 Bolnisi Municipality“Establishing a platform for efficient flow of business activities in Bolnisi”

380,000 EUREU CONTRIBUTION 84%,

2018 – 2021

UKRAINEUA1 City Council of Baranivka"Youth-driven Organic Business Cluster in Baranivka amalgamated community"

1,015,000 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 78%,

2018 – 2020

UA2 Dolyna City Council“Cooperation for increasing the competitiveness in the agriculture sector and diversification of the structure of the local economy in Dolyna sub-region"

628,855 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 82%,

2018 – 2021

UA3 Hlyboka Settlement Council"Different Communities – Joint Decisions for Economic Growth"

788,843 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 75%,

2018 – 2019

UA4 NoveMisto Amalgamated Territorial Community Council"COWBOYky. Ukrainian Wild West"

1,130,227 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 80%,

2018 – 2020

UA5 Severynivka City Council"YablunevyiShlyakh" ("Apple Way")

702,860 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 80%,

2018 – 2019

UA6 Slavutych City Council"Slavutych is a growth driver of open and free economy of the region"

850,050 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 76%,

2018 – 2020

MOLDOVAMD1 Cimislia District Council"South Open Gate of Moldova for Businesses and Investment Promotion"

336,121 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 90%,

2018 – 2019

MD3 Executive Committee of Gagauzia“Establishing Regional Business Information and Support Centre for the Gagauzia Region of the Republic of Moldova”

516,172 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 83%,

2018 – 2020

MD2 City Hall of Edinet Municipality“Edinet – Economic Growth Pole in North region of Moldova”

643,545 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 90%,

2018 – 2020

GE2 Gori Municipality“Empowering Local Economic Opportunities for Sustainable Growth”

695,997 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 86%,

2018 – 2020

GE3 Tbilisi City MunicipalityCreating Business Accelerator for sustainable SME development

1,013,268 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 50%,

2018 – 2022

BELARUSBY1 Bragin District Executive Committee, Gomel Region“Agrobusiness – incubator”

625,552 EUREU CONTRIBUTION 90%,

2018 – 2021

BY2 Glubokoye District Executive Committee, Vitebsk Region“Creation of Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovations Promotion and Support in Glubokoye District, Vitebsk Region, Belarus”

461,478 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 90%,

2018 – 2021

BY3 Slavgorod District Executive Committee, Mogilev Region“BRIDGE as the Pilot Eco-Business Model for Local and Regional Economic Growth”

655,744 EUR EU CONTRIBUTION 90%,

2018 – 2021

Improving business environment From the scope of the Pioneer Projects it is obvious that improving the institutional framework and hard infrastructure for business support services was the most needed local transformation in the region, with the overwhelming majority of projects aiming at creating or building capacity of business support services providers in their locality. All three Pioneer Projects in Moldova are designed to unlock the business develop-ment potential of Moldovan regions through establishing business support structures and institutions in the munici-palities with the highest capacity, thus turning them into three growth poles for

larger regions of the country. They are: Cimislia Municipality for the South Region (MD1) with a business incubator network, Edinets Municipality (MD2) for creation of an Industrial Park for the North Region, and the autonomous Gagauzia Region of Moldova (MD3), starting the Centre for Regional Information and Support.

The Municipality of Cimislia (MD1) is taking the lead in a coalition of business incubators and hubs in 7 neighboring municipalities, with the South Regional Development Agency and Organization

for Small and Medium Enterprises Devel-opment on board, in order to establish a regional network of business support service organizations focusing on SME clients.

A very similar idea is behind the project in Slavutych, Ukraine (UA6), which is designed to establish an efficient business support infrastructure serving the needs of business entities in the Slavutych region and several neighbour-ing communities of Chernihiv Oblast. Both these M4EG Pioneer Projects were conceived as a result of intermunicipal cooperation, which goes beyond the borders of the respective grantee munici-palities.

Increasing access to finance

The only Pioneer Project in Armenia (Sevan municipality, AM1), the projects proposed by Tbilisi city in Georgia (GE3), Hlybokain Ukraine (UA3), and one district of Belarus (Glubokoye BY2), are also focused on creating/upgrading business support infrastructure, which will be offering a broad range of services to local private sector entities, including training for SMEs, attracting investment, promot-ing local products, improving access to finance for private entities, etc.

Investing into comparative advantages

Rather than improving the business environment across the board, quite a few grant beneficiaries identified one high potential sector of the local economy where they want to concentrate their local economic development efforts. Two main sectors stand out, namely:

AGRICULTURE

Bragin district (BY1), Bolnisi Municipality (GE1), the cities of Dolyna (UA3) and Baranivka (UA2) see their future economic success in a highly developed agricultural sector. Offering better quality and a broad-er range of support services to rural entre-preneurs; modern approaches to growing, storing, marketing and selling local agricul-tural produce; organic farming; and facilitating cooperation between the engaged stakeholders are the main focus areas of these 4 pioneer projects.

TOURISM

Over the last couple of decades, the coun-tries of the Eastern Partnership region have improved their touristic potential turning into increasingly attractive destinations for international and domestic tourists.

4 new tourism locations in the region will receive support from the EU to improve tourism-related hard and soft infrastruc-ture, information and tourism services, and marketing and promotion of their tourism products.

Slavgorod district (BY3) in Belarus will be developing ecotourism through establish-ing an innovative tourism destination in the form of an Eco Park, and piloting a new tourism operation business model there.

In Ukraine, a regional brand of an “Apple Paradise” will be promoted through clustering activities in Severynivka (UA5), while the city of Nove Misto (UA4) will set up a cowboy ranch and turn it into a Wild West entertainment park. The Georgian city of Gori, closely associ-ated with the controversial figure of Stalin, is already attracting thousands of tourists wishing to visit his birthplace. The pioneer project in Gori Municipality (GE2) is focused on improving the tourism and city infrastructure in cooperation with Gori State Teaching University, so that the tourists can stay there longer and get acquainted with other numerous histori-cal sites and tourism opportunities that the municipality has to offer.

CIMISLIA GAGAUZIA

EDINET

BARANIVKA

HLYBOKA

SLAVUTYCH

DOLYNA

NOVEMISTO

SEVERYNIVKA

BRAGIN

SLAVGOROD

GLUBOKOYE

BY2

BY3

BY1

MD1

MD2

UA1

UA2

UA3

UA4UA5

UA6

MD3

U K R A I N E

MOLDOVA

B E L A R U S

BackgroundDuring the first year of the Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG) Initiative, the EU launched a multi-country Call for Proposals for the Signatory cities/municipalities to identify and support the champions of local economic development in the region. The winners have received financial support within maximum 4 years' to implement projects included in their Local Economic Development plans focusing on:

- investing into local comparative advantages to stimulate business development;

- investing in physical (hard) infrastructure and in soft infrastructure to improve business environment; and

- attracting external investment and increasing the local access to finance.

Improving business environment From the scope of the Pioneer Projects it is obvious that improving the institutional framework and hard infrastructure for business support services was the most needed local transformation in the region, with the overwhelming majority of projects aiming at creating or building capacity of business support services providers in their locality. All three Pioneer Projects in Moldova are designed to unlock the business develop-ment potential of Moldovan regions through establishing business support structures and institutions in the munici-palities with the highest capacity, thus turning them into three growth poles for

larger regions of the country. They are: Cimislia Municipality for the South Region (MD1) with a business incubator network, Edinets Municipality (MD2) for creation of an Industrial Park for the North Region, and the autonomous Gagauzia Region of Moldova (MD3), starting the Centre for Regional Information and Support.

The Municipality of Cimislia (MD1) is taking the lead in a coalition of business incubators and hubs in 7 neighboring municipalities, with the South Regional Development Agency and Organization

for Small and Medium Enterprises Devel-opment on board, in order to establish a regional network of business support service organizations focusing on SME clients.

A very similar idea is behind the project in Slavutych, Ukraine (UA6), which is designed to establish an efficient business support infrastructure serving the needs of business entities in the Slavutych region and several neighbour-ing communities of Chernihiv Oblast. Both these M4EG Pioneer Projects were conceived as a result of intermunicipal cooperation, which goes beyond the borders of the respective grantee munici-palities.

Increasing access to finance

The only Pioneer Project in Armenia (Sevan municipality, AM1), the projects proposed by Tbilisi city in Georgia (GE3), Hlybokain Ukraine (UA3), and one district of Belarus (Glubokoye BY2), are also focused on creating/upgrading business support infrastructure, which will be offering a broad range of services to local private sector entities, including training for SMEs, attracting investment, promot-ing local products, improving access to finance for private entities, etc.

Investing into comparative advantages

Rather than improving the business environment across the board, quite a few grant beneficiaries identified one high potential sector of the local economy where they want to concentrate their local economic development efforts. Two main sectors stand out, namely:

AGRICULTURE

Bragin district (BY1), Bolnisi Municipality (GE1), the cities of Dolyna (UA3) and Baranivka (UA2) see their future economic success in a highly developed agricultural sector. Offering better quality and a broad-er range of support services to rural entre-preneurs; modern approaches to growing, storing, marketing and selling local agricul-tural produce; organic farming; and facilitating cooperation between the engaged stakeholders are the main focus areas of these 4 pioneer projects.

TOURISM

Over the last couple of decades, the coun-tries of the Eastern Partnership region have improved their touristic potential turning into increasingly attractive destinations for international and domestic tourists.

4 new tourism locations in the region will receive support from the EU to improve tourism-related hard and soft infrastruc-ture, information and tourism services, and marketing and promotion of their tourism products.

Slavgorod district (BY3) in Belarus will be developing ecotourism through establish-ing an innovative tourism destination in the form of an Eco Park, and piloting a new tourism operation business model there.

In Ukraine, a regional brand of an “Apple Paradise” will be promoted through clustering activities in Severynivka (UA5), while the city of Nove Misto (UA4) will set up a cowboy ranch and turn it into a Wild West entertainment park. The Georgian city of Gori, closely associ-ated with the controversial figure of Stalin, is already attracting thousands of tourists wishing to visit his birthplace. The pioneer project in Gori Municipality (GE2) is focused on improving the tourism and city infrastructure in cooperation with Gori State Teaching University, so that the tourists can stay there longer and get acquainted with other numerous histori-cal sites and tourism opportunities that the municipality has to offer.

SECTOR NOT SPECIFIED/-MULTIPLE FOCUS

TOURISM

AGRICULTURE

REGIONAL (MULTI-DISTRICT) PROJECT

SEVAN

BOLNISI

GORI TBILISI

AM1

GE1

GE3GE2

ARMENIA

AZERBAIJAN

GEORGIA

M4EG Pioneer Projects at a glance

Improving business environment From the scope of the Pioneer Projects it is obvious that improving the institutional framework and hard infrastructure for business support services was the most needed local transformation in the region, with the overwhelming majority of projects aiming at creating or building capacity of business support services providers in their locality. All three Pioneer Projects in Moldova are designed to unlock the business develop-ment potential of Moldovan regions through establishing business support structures and institutions in the munici-palities with the highest capacity, thus turning them into three growth poles for

larger regions of the country. They are: Cimislia Municipality for the South Region (MD1) with a business incubator network, Edinets Municipality (MD2) for creation of an Industrial Park for the North Region, and the autonomous Gagauzia Region of Moldova (MD3), starting the Centre for Regional Information and Support.

The Municipality of Cimislia (MD1) is taking the lead in a coalition of business incubators and hubs in 7 neighboring municipalities, with the South Regional Development Agency and Organization

for Small and Medium Enterprises Devel-opment on board, in order to establish a regional network of business support service organizations focusing on SME clients.

A very similar idea is behind the project in Slavutych, Ukraine (UA6), which is designed to establish an efficient business support infrastructure serving the needs of business entities in the Slavutych region and several neighbour-ing communities of Chernihiv Oblast. Both these M4EG Pioneer Projects were conceived as a result of intermunicipal cooperation, which goes beyond the borders of the respective grantee munici-palities.

Increasing access to finance

The only Pioneer Project in Armenia (Sevan municipality, AM1), the projects proposed by Tbilisi city in Georgia (GE3), Hlybokain Ukraine (UA3), and one district of Belarus (Glubokoye BY2), are also focused on creating/upgrading business support infrastructure, which will be offering a broad range of services to local private sector entities, including training for SMEs, attracting investment, promot-ing local products, improving access to finance for private entities, etc.

Investing into comparative advantages

Rather than improving the business environment across the board, quite a few grant beneficiaries identified one high potential sector of the local economy where they want to concentrate their local economic development efforts. Two main sectors stand out, namely:

AGRICULTURE

Bragin district (BY1), Bolnisi Municipality (GE1), the cities of Dolyna (UA3) and Baranivka (UA2) see their future economic success in a highly developed agricultural sector. Offering better quality and a broad-er range of support services to rural entre-preneurs; modern approaches to growing, storing, marketing and selling local agricul-tural produce; organic farming; and facilitating cooperation between the engaged stakeholders are the main focus areas of these 4 pioneer projects.

TOURISM

Over the last couple of decades, the coun-tries of the Eastern Partnership region have improved their touristic potential turning into increasingly attractive destinations for international and domestic tourists.

4 new tourism locations in the region will receive support from the EU to improve tourism-related hard and soft infrastruc-ture, information and tourism services, and marketing and promotion of their tourism products.

Slavgorod district (BY3) in Belarus will be developing ecotourism through establish-ing an innovative tourism destination in the form of an Eco Park, and piloting a new tourism operation business model there.

In Ukraine, a regional brand of an “Apple Paradise” will be promoted through clustering activities in Severynivka (UA5), while the city of Nove Misto (UA4) will set up a cowboy ranch and turn it into a Wild West entertainment park. The Georgian city of Gori, closely associ-ated with the controversial figure of Stalin, is already attracting thousands of tourists wishing to visit his birthplace. The pioneer project in Gori Municipality (GE2) is focused on improving the tourism and city infrastructure in cooperation with Gori State Teaching University, so that the tourists can stay there longer and get acquainted with other numerous histori-cal sites and tourism opportunities that the municipality has to offer.

In December 2017, the grant agreements were signed for the total budget of around 9 MILLION EURO, and the implementation of the 16 competitively selected pioneer projects started in early 2018.

M4EG Pioneer Projects at a glance(continued)

Improving business environment From the scope of the Pioneer Projects it is obvious that improving the institutional framework and hard infrastructure for business support services was the most needed local transformation in the region, with the overwhelming majority of projects aiming at creating or building capacity of business support services providers in their locality. All three Pioneer Projects in Moldova are designed to unlock the business develop-ment potential of Moldovan regions through establishing business support structures and institutions in the munici-palities with the highest capacity, thus turning them into three growth poles for

larger regions of the country. They are: Cimislia Municipality for the South Region (MD1) with a business incubator network, Edinets Municipality (MD2) for creation of an Industrial Park for the North Region, and the autonomous Gagauzia Region of Moldova (MD3), starting the Centre for Regional Information and Support.

The Municipality of Cimislia (MD1) is taking the lead in a coalition of business incubators and hubs in 7 neighboring municipalities, with the South Regional Development Agency and Organization

for Small and Medium Enterprises Devel-opment on board, in order to establish a regional network of business support service organizations focusing on SME clients.

A very similar idea is behind the project in Slavutych, Ukraine (UA6), which is designed to establish an efficient business support infrastructure serving the needs of business entities in the Slavutych region and several neighbour-ing communities of Chernihiv Oblast. Both these M4EG Pioneer Projects were conceived as a result of intermunicipal cooperation, which goes beyond the borders of the respective grantee munici-palities.

Increasing access to finance

The only Pioneer Project in Armenia (Sevan municipality, AM1), the projects proposed by Tbilisi city in Georgia (GE3), Hlybokain Ukraine (UA3), and one district of Belarus (Glubokoye BY2), are also focused on creating/upgrading business support infrastructure, which will be offering a broad range of services to local private sector entities, including training for SMEs, attracting investment, promot-ing local products, improving access to finance for private entities, etc.

Investing into comparative advantages

Rather than improving the business environment across the board, quite a few grant beneficiaries identified one high potential sector of the local economy where they want to concentrate their local economic development efforts. Two main sectors stand out, namely:

AGRICULTURE

Bragin district (BY1), Bolnisi Municipality (GE1), the cities of Dolyna (UA3) and Baranivka (UA2) see their future economic success in a highly developed agricultural sector. Offering better quality and a broad-er range of support services to rural entre-preneurs; modern approaches to growing, storing, marketing and selling local agricul-tural produce; organic farming; and facilitating cooperation between the engaged stakeholders are the main focus areas of these 4 pioneer projects.

TOURISM

Over the last couple of decades, the coun-tries of the Eastern Partnership region have improved their touristic potential turning into increasingly attractive destinations for international and domestic tourists.

4 new tourism locations in the region will receive support from the EU to improve tourism-related hard and soft infrastruc-ture, information and tourism services, and marketing and promotion of their tourism products.

Slavgorod district (BY3) in Belarus will be developing ecotourism through establish-ing an innovative tourism destination in the form of an Eco Park, and piloting a new tourism operation business model there.

In Ukraine, a regional brand of an “Apple Paradise” will be promoted through clustering activities in Severynivka (UA5), while the city of Nove Misto (UA4) will set up a cowboy ranch and turn it into a Wild West entertainment park. The Georgian city of Gori, closely associ-ated with the controversial figure of Stalin, is already attracting thousands of tourists wishing to visit his birthplace. The pioneer project in Gori Municipality (GE2) is focused on improving the tourism and city infrastructure in cooperation with Gori State Teaching University, so that the tourists can stay there longer and get acquainted with other numerous histori-cal sites and tourism opportunities that the municipality has to offer.

What is Local Economic Development made of?The local business environment is comprised of multiple factors of both external and internal character. The M4EG Concept defines 5 thematic areas which are crucial for local economic growth, and which are called the building blocks of local economic development. They are:

• Regulatory and Institutional Framework• Land and Infrastructure• Skills and Human Capital, Inclusiveness• External Positioning and Marketing• Access to Finance

These key components of local economic development can be tackled locally, as to a great extent they are within the sphere of influence of the local administrations. At least three most relevant building blocks of these five are to be addressed by the M4EG Signatories’ local economic development plans. The selected 16 Pioneer Projects are overarching in their scope, each of them addressing from 2 to 4 key building blocks.

About the “Mayors for Economic Growth” Initiative“Mayors for Economic Growth”(M4EG) is a flagship initiative of the European Union, which was set in operation in January 2017 within the Eastern Partnership framework.

Its overall goal is to support Mayors and municipalities of the Eastern Partnership countries to become active facilitators for economic growth and job creation at the local level.

Local administrations and mayors are invited to sign up for the Mayors for Economic Growth membership if they are ready to accept the M4EG guiding principles in order to spur self-sustained local economic growth; work to develop locally inspired solutions; and implement them with M4EG Secretariat guidance and support. The types of support include:

- Capacity building and support during the design and implementation of local economic development plans;

- Free access to international technical expertise in local economic development;- Support in communicating achievements with a view to attracting further investment;- Access to international peers and partners;- Facilitation of cross-country cooperation between local authorities in the EaP region;- Grant funding opportunities for implementing local economic development actions.

Mayors for Economic Growth (M4EG)

P I O N E E R P R O J E C T S B R I E F

Improving business environment From the scope of the Pioneer Projects it is obvious that improving the institutional framework and hard infrastructure for business support services was the most needed local transformation in the region, with the overwhelming majority of projects aiming at creating or building capacity of business support services providers in their locality. All three Pioneer Projects in Moldova are designed to unlock the business develop-ment potential of Moldovan regions through establishing business support structures and institutions in the munici-palities with the highest capacity, thus turning them into three growth poles for

larger regions of the country. They are: Cimislia Municipality for the South Region (MD1) with a business incubator network, Edinets Municipality (MD2) for creation of an Industrial Park for the North Region, and the autonomous Gagauzia Region of Moldova (MD3), starting the Centre for Regional Information and Support.

The Municipality of Cimislia (MD1) is taking the lead in a coalition of business incubators and hubs in 7 neighboring municipalities, with the South Regional Development Agency and Organization

for Small and Medium Enterprises Devel-opment on board, in order to establish a regional network of business support service organizations focusing on SME clients.

A very similar idea is behind the project in Slavutych, Ukraine (UA6), which is designed to establish an efficient business support infrastructure serving the needs of business entities in the Slavutych region and several neighbour-ing communities of Chernihiv Oblast. Both these M4EG Pioneer Projects were conceived as a result of intermunicipal cooperation, which goes beyond the borders of the respective grantee munici-palities.

Increasing access to finance

The only Pioneer Project in Armenia (Sevan municipality, AM1), the projects proposed by Tbilisi city in Georgia (GE3), Hlybokain Ukraine (UA3), and one district of Belarus (Glubokoye BY2), are also focused on creating/upgrading business support infrastructure, which will be offering a broad range of services to local private sector entities, including training for SMEs, attracting investment, promot-ing local products, improving access to finance for private entities, etc.

Investing into comparative advantages

Rather than improving the business environment across the board, quite a few grant beneficiaries identified one high potential sector of the local economy where they want to concentrate their local economic development efforts. Two main sectors stand out, namely:

AGRICULTURE

Bragin district (BY1), Bolnisi Municipality (GE1), the cities of Dolyna (UA3) and Baranivka (UA2) see their future economic success in a highly developed agricultural sector. Offering better quality and a broad-er range of support services to rural entre-preneurs; modern approaches to growing, storing, marketing and selling local agricul-tural produce; organic farming; and facilitating cooperation between the engaged stakeholders are the main focus areas of these 4 pioneer projects.

TOURISM

Over the last couple of decades, the coun-tries of the Eastern Partnership region have improved their touristic potential turning into increasingly attractive destinations for international and domestic tourists.

4 new tourism locations in the region will receive support from the EU to improve tourism-related hard and soft infrastruc-ture, information and tourism services, and marketing and promotion of their tourism products.

Slavgorod district (BY3) in Belarus will be developing ecotourism through establish-ing an innovative tourism destination in the form of an Eco Park, and piloting a new tourism operation business model there.

In Ukraine, a regional brand of an “Apple Paradise” will be promoted through clustering activities in Severynivka (UA5), while the city of Nove Misto (UA4) will set up a cowboy ranch and turn it into a Wild West entertainment park. The Georgian city of Gori, closely associ-ated with the controversial figure of Stalin, is already attracting thousands of tourists wishing to visit his birthplace. The pioneer project in Gori Municipality (GE2) is focused on improving the tourism and city infrastructure in cooperation with Gori State Teaching University, so that the tourists can stay there longer and get acquainted with other numerous histori-cal sites and tourism opportunities that the municipality has to offer.

To learn more about the M4EG Initiative, M4EG Signatories implementing Pioneer Projects, and their exact activities, please visit the Mayors for Economic Growth website http://m4eg.eu/en/.