OREANDA-NEWS. DTEK has held a conference of the Social Partnership Coordination Committee with engagement of city mayors of the regions where it operates, representatives of international donors, public funds and NGOs. Due to cooperation with DTEK, small Ukrainian towns will be able to improve their social infrastructure, address urgent challenges and attract external investment for development.

“According to the data of international advisors, DTEK's contribution to development of the regions where it operates makes UAH 40bn* in total. This includes both indirect and induced impact which means the paying capacity of our employees and the added value and jobs in suppliers and contractors. We have invested over UAH 3bn in sustainable development projects this year including environmental programmes, H&S, and support of social infrastructure facilities. Despite a complex situation in the national economy DTEK will keep developing social partnership with the regions where its businesses are located. We will also invest in pilot projects designed to develop small and mid-sized businesses. In 2014, we will focus on creating new jobs and ensuring the activity of Local development agencies to raise additional finances for the cities,” stated DTEK's Director for External Affairs Aleksandr Tolkach at the conference.

The conference has become the fifth meeting of the Social Partnership Coordination Committee held at least once a year since 2010. Over this time the Social Partnership Coordination Committee has become a high-quality platform for discussing the opportunities and challenges facing the regions as well as for ensuring communication and cooperation between the city mayors, businesses and external experts.

This year the conference participants have provided equity and grant instruments to the mayors to attract additional investments to the cities. They include the Regional Development Foundation, Local Government Support Foundation, Eastern Partnership Foundation for Energy Efficiency and Environment, and international technical assistance projects. The grants and cash funds are provided on the competitive basis which means that local communities must be advised who to apply to and how to initiate projects. During the conference representatives of public authorities, international donors and local governments exchanged contact information and agreed on cooperation.

“Public funds make about 7% of all the investments in the cities and the rest of the funds are raised investments. For this very reason partnership for raising investment plays a very important role to ensure sustainable economic development of cities. According to the state Regional Development Strategy adopted in November cities can play a vital role in development of regions,” noted Director of the Regional policy department at the Ministry of Economic Development Yelena Nizhnik.

As a result of cooperation with DTEK the cities can attract much more funds than is available in their local budgets. This has a direct impact on the standards of living, which was underlined by the mayors at the conference where they reported on implementation of the projects under the Three-year social partnership strategies concluded between DTEK and the regions where it operates.

“Over the last year the city has changed greatly. There are new areas for development; the city is building new facilities and repairing kindergartens and schools. Due to Telemedicine project medical consultations were provided to residents of Burshtyn and some of the residents were operated on in Amosov National Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery. We feel that we have a reliable partner. For a town with the budget of UAH 9m the investment of UAH 11m is very significant,” stated the Mayor of Burshtyn Petr Kurlyak.

Investments in health care gain much importance in the context of medical reform. In several cities the medical equipment purchased by DTEK helped to detect dozens of cases of cancer at an early stage. Thus, people got good chances of a cure. One more successful case study includes Dobropolye. Due to DTEK's investments the town managed not only to keep the town hospital but also to arrange a hospital centre as the hospital is the best equipped and repaired facility in the region.

Now DTEK is summarising the results of its social programmes 2013. Investments in social projects within the strategies have made over UAH 120m this year.