Ukrainian Think Tankers conduct field trip to Southern Germany
From 22–25 October 2018 in the framework of the Berlin Policy Hub project three representatives from the Ukrainian think tanks Centre for Economic Strategy (CES) and Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (IER) conducted a research field trip to Southern Germany in order to deepen their knowledge on German policies for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Hlib Vyshlinsky, director of CES, Dmytro Yablonovskyy, deputy director, and Oksana Kuziakiv, chief executive at IER, plan to include the field trip’s results into their joint research paper with Dr. Niclas Rüffer from ifm Mannheim (University of Mannheim Institute for SME research), who accompanied the three researchers during their visit. In meetings with the “Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit” (GIZ), the Chamber of Commerce, Baden-Württemberg International, Mannheim Centre for Entrepreneurship (MCEI) and Innovation and the “Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau” (KfW) economic and financial aspects of SME development were discussed. Furthermore, the Ukrainian delegation had the opportunity to exchange best-practice examples and ideas for the current and future development of SMEs with representatives from German businesses and facilitating incubators and clusters (MAFINEX technology park, Cluster Medical Technology Mannheim, Textilerei).
CES and IER are Ukrainian think tanks with a focus on elaborating strategies for economic development, foreign trade, financial market policy and competition policy. Their research in these areas is complemented by capacity development projects for civil society and companies. Moreover, CES and IER are members of the Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR), an association of Ukrainian NGOs and experts aimed at facilitating the implementation of judicial and anticorruption reforms, decentralization and reforms of public administration and law enforcement agencies in the framework of the Association Agreement between the European Union and Ukraine.
The Berlin Policy Hub is part of the “Europeanization beyond process” supported by the Open Society Foundations and serves as a first point of contact for think tanks from Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine in Berlin. The aim is to foster the network and exchange between think tankers from Eastern Europe and Germany and to point out new possibilities for cooperation.
