At the conference “Ukraine: an investment haven in times of change”, Roman Matys spoke on the panel “Building investment bridges between Ukrainian regions and the world”. He explained how, within a few years, Lviv region became one of Ukraine’s strongest regional economies and attracted USD 650 million of foreign direct investment.
For comparison: in 2015 FDI in the region stood at USD 28.4 million; by the end of 2019 it was over USD 500 million. This work was done over five years by the #investinlvivregion team led by Roman Matys.
Most people only see the result. The path to it had seven steps:
- focus on the region’s opportunities;
- find promising sectors;
- identify threats and respond to them;
- build the arguments;
- write a territorial marketing strategy;
- assemble a team;
- set up effective communication with the investor.
He also stressed that an investor must know specific people on the ground to turn to, and understand that support will be there. Without that, there is no point expecting results.
Investors were drawn by proximity to the EU border, developed infrastructure, raw materials, energy resources and a skilled workforce. The full story is in the case study Lviv Region — Factory of Europe.
Original (in Ukrainian): matys.com.ua, matys.com.ua