Five cities in Ukraine won a position in the European ranking in category of economic potential according to the British agency Emerging Europe: Lviv, Kyiv, Kharkov, Odessa and Dnipro.

Emerging Europe invited 70 global location experts and foreign direct investment advisers to weigh up the various merits of the 75 cities in the emerging Europe region which are either national capitals or have a population of more than 200,000 inhabitants. This year, 51 of those experts – many of whom are members of the Site Selectors Guild – cast votes, more than double last year’s number of 25.

Craig Turp-Balazs, editor of Emerging Europe

Budapest, which won by a wide margin, topped two of the eight categories (City Brand, and Local Authority Support). Here is an analysis of all the categories chosen by the pool of city experts:

• ECONOMIC POTENTIAL. #1 Tbilisi (#2 Lviv, #3 Kharkov), #6 Odessa.
• CITY BRAND. #1 Budapest, (comparable city to Odessa) #5 Łódź.
• BUSINESS CLIMATE. #1 Łódź, (comparable) #4 Tallinn.
• INFRASTRUCTURE AND CONNECTIVITY. #1 Warsaw, #6 Łódź.
• LOCAL AUTHORITY SUPPORT. #1 Budapest, #3 Lviv.
• POOL OF TALENT. #1 Bucharest, #3 Kharkov.
• QUALITY OF LIFE. #1 Prague, #7 Lviv.
• SMART CITY DEVELOPMENT. #1 Sofia and Tallinn, #7 Lviv.

A lesson for Odessa

As far as Odessa is concerned, it is worth considering its positive score as “Economic potential”. But, at same time, Ukrainian cities like Lviv and Kharkov are progressing faster in categories, where the maritime capital of Ukraine is called to play a role.

Especially in the “City brand” category, which concerns international visibility and can be obtained through an efficient international city marketing.

Moreover, Odessa is hiding its strength in terms of “Pool of talents” and “Quality of life”, where the City can seriously challenge Kharkov and Kyiv.

Finally, “Infrastructure and connectivity” and “Local authority support” are categories strictly connected to the level of coordination between local and central governments, which is the City’s Achilles heel.

Maybe, it is not completely fair to compare Odessa with big capital cities (Budapest, Prague, Warsaw), but it is interesting to enlighten the results of minor cities like Kharkov and Łódź, to understand that those goals are affordable.

However, do not let us forget that Lviv is ahead of Kyiv, Sofia and Vilnius in the general ranking.

Odessa’s coordinated effort in creating a business-friendly environment and uncovering its untapped potential could quickly climb the current ranking from the position of sixth Ukrainian city.

Source : 112 Ukraine