Representatives of the State Committee of Ukraine for Regulatory Policy

July 18, 2007.

    and Entrepreneurship study the German experience
    Selected representatives of the State Committee of Ukraine for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship (SCURPE), the Ministry of Finance and the administration of the Verkhovna Rada received an opportunity to learn the German experience of planning and implementing SME support policy. This was made possible within the framework of the EU-funded project “SME Support Services in Priority Regions”, which organised a SME policy study tour to Berlin end of June 2007.
    The objectives of this trip were:
    - to get acquainted with SME support policy on a regional and national level in Germany;
    - to learn more about German innovative approaches to support SME growth;
    - to find out the peculiarities of the permits system in Germany, taking the construction and land site as concrete examples.
    The participants, including Gennadiy Bilous, SCURPE Deputy head, Olga Sakhnenko, SCURPE Deputy Head, Mykola Dovgalyuk, Head of SCURPE Khmelnytsky regional office, Natalia Lysogor, Deputy Head of the Permit System Unit, Alla Danchenko, Deputy Head of the Department for Finances of State Enterprises and Property Relations of the Ministry of Finances of Ukraine, Viktoria Shestopalova, Head of Secretariat of the Committee for Industry, Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship of Verkhovna Rada –Parliament of Ukraine, met with various officials and policy-makers in Berlin, capital of Germany.
    They were especially welcomed by the Mayor and Senator for Economy of Berlin, Mr. Harald Wolf who emphasised that Berlin has adopted a very targeted and structured approach to overall economic and SME support policy, which focuses on the following 4 areas:
    - Life sciences;
    - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT);
    - Mobility;
    - Optical Technology.
    It was underlined that Berlin does not dare to speak of ‘clusters’ in those four sectors today, but addresses them as ‘areas of competence’, which are aimed for developing into economic and scientific clusters in future.
    “Formerly Berlin SME support looked like shooting with a shotgun. Today our approach is very targeted and focuses only on those economic sectors, which will give the biggest benefits to the city in future”, - Senator Wolf said.
    During meetings with the German Ministry of Economy and Technology, the KfW Bank and Berlin Investment Bank, the participants learnt about regional and federal support to innovations- and export-oriented companies.
    The participants viewed the trip as a very fruitful one providing a lot of valuable information and practical experiences that can be applied in Ukraine.
    For more information please contact:
    Alexander Markus
    SME Policy Advice & Regulatory Framework Expert
    Tel./Fax: +380 44 285 66 65
    E-mail: alexander.markus@smeuk.org.ua
    Victoria Tetyora
    Project Training and Dissemination Expert
    Tel.: +380 44 501 10 42
    E-mail: Victoria.tetyora@smeuk.org.ua