Local economic development, investment promotion consulting

Local governments are trying to maintain a good relationship with local businesses. However, the issues that are raised by them are usually dealt with slowly in the absence of resources by the office. If they raise an idea, claim, or problem, which would require a more serious retrieval or consultation, they usually get stuck somewhere. In many cases even if they do not ask for but offer something. For these reasons, the municipality can not give a substantive answer simply because it does not have the internal resource and capacity to examine it thoroughly.

In addition to good business contacts with large companies, the city is also considered to be of paramount importance for small and medium-sized enterprises as they are important players in the economy. Therefore, contact with them and the subsidies that they can be given are of the utmost importance. They may include:

• assessing training needs and obtaining a cost-effective purchase of appropriate quantities,
• estimating and obtaining financing and credit needs with the involvement of local financial institutions,
• manpower needs assessment,
• production, service capacities for effective cluster-level cooperation and export,
• consulting eg. vocational training contribution, tender resources, cluster collaboration.

Competition for investments is no longer just on the level of countries, but also cities and regions. The final decision is often influenced by personal impressions or aspects of lesser weight, and the importance of presenting local features and benefits has increased.

Although it can be said that the countries of the Central and Eastern European region are still the preferred targets for capital investors and offer broadly similar conditions, there are significant differences in the recognition of rural cities in business circles. Since these settlements are less well-known and well-visited sites, they need to attract investors, and have to carry out serious, systematic city marketing activities

This promotion at the local level and participation in business forums are carried out by well-trained economic experts who know exactly how to handle international business and have a good relationship at decision-making level.

Keeping in touch with the representatives of the corporate sector is effective when communication is two-way, fast and targeted.These expectations are even more appreciated in business and investment cases, as the decision-making mechanisms of large companies are difficult to handle the many or no specific answers. For this reason, companies operating here may lose projects or investments, and a negative image of the city can easily emerge in business circles.

Steps of the process

In the first step, we assess the economic climate and conditions of the settlement. Then we take into consideration the advantages and weaknesses identified and we develop an attractive investor strategy for the settlement, which we will take as a part of our implementation.