After the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia, Ukraine had to suffer significant losses and destroyed infrastructure. In such difficult times, various organizations, associations and even countries are engaged in active efforts to help the country to recover.
One of the effective tools that promote recovery and development is the sister cities program introduced by the Mayors’ Club. This initiative promotes direct communication, exchange of experience and development of friendly relations between cities of different countries, in particular through the “Global business connect” program.
How is it useful? Advantages of the sister cities program:
- Exchange of experience and knowledge:
The advantages of the sister city program are the ability to exchange experience and knowledge between communities of different countries. This allows Ukrainian cities to learn best practices and innovative solutions that are already successfully used in other parts of the world. The horizontal exchange of experience creates unique opportunities for effective problem solving and development of various fields, such as economy, education, culture and municipal administration.
Exchange of experience and knowledge is:
- Obtaining innovative ideas: An opportunity for Ukrainian communities to familiarize themselves with innovative approaches and ideas that have been successfully implemented in other countries.
- Development of professional expertise: Allows representatives of Ukrainian communities to gain access to specialists and experts from various fields.
- Joint problem solving: sister cities can jointly analyze the problems they face and find effective ways to solve them.
- Training programs and certification
- Expansion of international contacts:
The sister cities program stimulates the establishment and maintenance of long-term partnerships between communities of different countries. This exchange of partnership ensures the strengthening of international ties and promotes the development of friendship and mutual understanding between peoples. In addition, it opens up opportunities for the development of tourism, cultural exchange and trade between the sister cities.
Expansion of international contacts is:
- Cultural exchange: Exchange of values, traditions and art. This helps to enrich the cultural diversity of Ukrainian communities and deepen mutual understanding between different peoples.
- Development of tourism: Tourists from other countries are interested in visiting their sister cities, which contributes to the growth of tourist flow and the development of tourism infrastructure in Ukrainian communities.
- Economic cooperation: This can include joint projects, investments, trade agreements and business initiatives.
- Promotion of economic growth:
The sister cities program can become a powerful tool for attracting foreign investment. By establishing partnership relations with cities of other countries, Ukrainian communities get the opportunity to present their potential and attractiveness for investments. This can contribute to the development of business, the creation of new jobs and the improvement of the economic level of communities.
Promotion of economic growth is:
- Attractiveness for foreign investors: sister cities can use their partnership ties to actively promote their economic potential and attract foreign investors. This creates opportunities for the development of new enterprises, technologies and infrastructure.
- Development of professional expertise: Cooperation with partner cities allows Ukrainian communities to learn from successful business practices and techniques used in other countries. This promotes the development of entrepreneurship and improves the competitiveness of Ukrainian companies on the international market.
- Expansion of export opportunities: Twinning relations open new markets for the export of Ukrainian goods and services. Thanks to cooperation with partner cities, Ukrainian companies have the opportunity to increase their presence on the international market.
Thanks to the sister cities program, Ukrainian communities will have an opportunity to use the best practices and strengthen international ties, which contributes to their development and prosperity. This is an important step in creating global networks of cooperation and mutual understanding, while contributing to the construction of a strong and advanced society.
The BMN company created a network of sites that connect Ukrainian municipalities, also created all-Ukrainian and international business catalogs with showrooms of businesses and projects. On these platforms businesses from different countries can register and cooperate with registered Ukrainian businesses for free. Such digital tools help the municipalities of Ukraine to support and develop the entire business, because they have already understood that their successful activity is replenishment of local budgets.