As of September 2017, the total number of signatories to the Initiative reached 193 members regionwide. A number of Signing Ceremonies for the new M4EG members were held throughout the region, with M4EG certificates awarded to each Signatory to recognize their joining the regional network of like-minded professionals, who have committed to jointly work on the local economic development interventions for the benefit of their citizens and territories in general.

Out of 164 applications to the Call for Proposals (61 for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, and Moldova together (Lot 1), and 103 for Ukraine (Lot 2)) the total of 45 applicants were pre-selected by the independent evaluation committee, and they were invited to submit their full proposals for the second selection phase (22 applicants for Lot 1, and 23 applicants for Lot 2 respectively).

Throughout September 2017 the Junior M4EG members in the 6 participating countries were being assessed on their existing individual and organizational capacity to manage economic development in their territories. The assessment tools included a facilitated participatory group discussion with the involvement of key local stakeholders, taking stock of their knowledge, skills and experience, as well as identifying gaps and bottlenecks to be addressed in the future.

Based on the aggregated results of the assessment commonalities and differences within the region were established, and a targeted capacity building programme will be developed to address the identified needs.

The results of the Capacity Assessment will be available online in late October 2017.

The workshop was conducted in cooperation with the Mahilioŭ Oblast Executive Committee and the Mahilioŭ Association of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, becoming the first official Mayors for Economic Growth presentation to the stakeholders in Belarus.

The 10th annual Local Economic Development Forum was dedicated to the concept of Progressive Cities, and hosted around 800 participants from all over the world, as well as featured 200 speakers and experts sharing their experience.

Being the flagship EU initiative promoting an active role of local administrations in creating economic growth and employment at the local level, the Mayors for Economic Growth made a valuable contribution to the discussion of how to ensure sustainable growth of cities to the benefit of their residents.

More pictures from Local Economic Development Forum 2017 are available here.

We are happy to invite you to visit the M4EG Initiative website http://www.m4eg.eu/, which presents the main results achieved in the first nine months of the Mayors for Economic Growth Secretariat operations. More features, information, and knowledge materials will be added as the Initiative moves forward.

At present, the cornerstone materials about the Initiative and M4EG approach are already accessible, the background information on M4EG signatories in each of the six participating countries is available online, as is the calendar of activities and the photos from Mayors for Economic Growth events. Additional information or support can be requested and obtained via the Helpdesk in Azeri, Armenian, Georgian, Romanian, Russian, and English.

Being developed from scratch, some of the sections and website functionalities are still under development, or run in a test mode. Customer feedback on how the website informational services can be improved will be welcome and much appreciated.