How to sell your city

The chocolate flows down in an endless stream, pouring like a waterfall over the freshly-baked crispy wafers.  Further down the production line, individual sticks are wrapped and packed in boxes.  Lucky visitors are invited to taste the delicious end-product, fresh from the ovens.

I’m at the “Roshen” chocolate factory in Vinnitsa, a city of 370,000 people in central Ukraine.  We’ve come to the city because the British Council and its Swiss partner have organised a Creative Cities seminar on urban development for young east European mayors with the go-ahead Vinnitsa city administration.  It’s great to see young leaders from Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Moldova, Poland and Latvia debating issues such as how to give a city a unique identity and vision; and how to market this.  All vigorously take up the opportunity to network and spread best practice.

The tour of the chocolate factory, together with a visit to the city administration with Volodymyr Groysman, the Mayor, suggests to me that Vinnitsa has several outstanding and unique features.  The administration is impressive, with a fully-functioning information system enabling the administration to log electronically individual complaints and monitor progress on-line, in real time, for everything from planning applications to road repairs, as well as letting individual citizens petition the Mayor directly to his in-box.  Downstairs, cheerful citizens use the electronic queuing system to enter glass-walled offices where officials at computer terminals deal transparently with their concerns.  It looks like a remarkable example of open government in action.

Before we start the 3-hour drive back to Kyiv, Margaret Jack (head of the British Council in Kyiv) and I discuss with the Mayor ideas for a slogan for the city.  We all like “The Sweet City”, based on the local sugar beet industry and confectionary factories.  Margaret comes up with another idea, after a discussion with an 11-year old at School No.30 in Vinnitsa.  Asked what distinguished people in the city, the girl replied “We believe in ourselves.”  Sounds the perfect slogan for any ambitious city – in Ukraine or elsewhere.