VI International Economic Forum “Innovations. Investments. Kharkiv Initiatives!” took place on September 5.
International experts discussed a strategy for economic development of the whole Ukraine and Kharkiv region in particular.
One of the most significant events of the country's business life was held at Aleksandr Yaroslavskiy's Kharkiv Palace hotel. It gathered politicians, officials, analysts, and business people, as well as Ukrainian and foreign experts. This year's pool of experts turned out to be as influential as ever: IBM, Microsoft, Nestlé, Philip Morris, PwC, Shell, USAID, the American Chamber of Commerce, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Canadian International Development Agency, The Bleyzer Foundation (including the President of the Foundation Michael Bleyzer). Moreover, chairmen of regional administrations and councils, Ukrainian ministers and their deputies, diplomats from Azerbaijan, Belarus, Vietnam, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia, and Turkey exchanged their views at the forum.
A number of interesting and relevant topics of today's economy was discussed: European integration, decentralization, development of gas industry and agriculture, e-government, and public-private partnerships. As befits such event, memoranda, letters of intent and other documents were signed during multiple meetings, which will be followed by real contracts and cooperation agreements in the near future.
There was a reason for holding the economic forum at the hotel in which businessman Aleksandr Yaroslavskiy, being a general investor of Kharkiv's preparation for EURO 2012, invested almost $ 130 million. Kharkiv Palace received UEFA functionaries, sponsors of the championship, players and judges.
"This example gives us the right to claim that even in difficult times Kharkiv has a huge investment potential," explained the director of the Kharkiv Palace 5* Olga Sokolenko. "This is also confirmed by business people who stay at our hotel. Being the center of business activity of the region, the Kharkiv Palace proves that Sloboda has every opportunity to become the cradle of the new Ukrainian economic miracle."
According to Olga Sokolenko, holding the economic forum at the Kharkiv Palace will give an additional momentum to the region's development.
The EBRD Director in Ukraine Sevki Adzhuner highly praised the venue for the forum.
"Your hotel is incredible!" exclaimed during the final meeting the person who had seen hundreds of hotels.
Reference Information
Kharkiv Palace 5* is the city's first luxury hotel. It was built on the Independence Square in Kharkiv as part of the city's preparation for EURO 2012. DCH Group acted as construction operator, total amount of investment into the project by Aleksandr Yaroslavskiy being $ 126 million.
Kharkiv Palace 5* has all the technical means and functionality to organize events at all levels - from business meetings to large conferences and forums. It was this hotel that in July-August accommodated at Yaroslavskiy's invitation official delegations that conducted investigation and search at the crash site of the Malaysian Boeing-777-200s airliner. It was also the headquarters for an international press center.
