Honoring the Memory of the Fallen, Visiting the Krystal, and Discussing Opportunities for Building an Inclusive Environment: How the First Day of the Visit to Vinnytsia by Representatives of the Twin Cities of Karlsruhe and Nancy

On May 10, a German-French delegation paid a working visit to Vinnytsia. After the ceremony of ratification of the twinning agreement between our city and Nancy and the Trilateral Agreement between Karlsruhe, Nancy and Vinnytsia, the guests had the opportunity to see a number of locations and discuss areas of further cooperation. In particular, they visited the construction of the Krystal Innovation and Technology Center and one of the leading centers of education and innovation, Vinnytsia National Technical University, where a meeting was held for students and researchers to discuss joint projects to improve spatial mobility in accordance with European standards.

During the visit, representatives of the two twin cities of Vinnytsia honored the feat of the fallen Heroes of the russian-Ukrainian war. On Shevchenka Square, they laid flowers at the wall of memory of the soldiers who gave their lives for the freedom of their homeland. The delegation members were shocked by what they saw - by how cruel the war is, by the scale of destruction and destruction of human lives. This further convinced them of the importance of joining forces to help Ukraine survive and recover. This is possible, in particular, through the establishment of effective cooperation in the economic sphere and the introduction of the latest technologies.

One such platform is the Krystal Innovation and Technology Center, which Vinnytsia continues to build during the war with grant assistance from the German Government through the German federal company Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and is being implemented by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Ukraine as part of the project "Supporting the Rapid Economic Recovery of Ukrainian Municipalities." Deputy Mayor Andrii Ocheretnyi emphasized the importance of implementing this project not only for Vinnytsia but for the entire country, as it will become the first center of the creative economy in the country.

"We started renovating this building in 2021 with funds from the city budget and the state budget. But in 2022, due to the full-scale war, we were forced to suspend the process. We resumed it in 2023 thanks to cooperation with the United Nations Development Program and GIZ. It involves attracting business start-ups, training people, Fab Lab and coworking. "In general, we want to employ more than a thousand people at this site," said Andrii Ocheretnyi, "We have a commitment to our international partners to commission the first phase of this building by the end of this year. There are many challenges, but we are confident that we will succeed."

The deputy mayor also noted that the Krystal Innovation and Technology Center will become a powerful center of clustering and business unification, which is very important in times of war.

"Due to the war, we have also faced a new challenge - the relocation of enterprises. Since the beginning of the invasion, 358 of them have been relocated. They have created more than 1700 new jobs. In total, both local and relocated businesses have created more than 3,700 of them," he emphasized. "Our key role is to ensure that those who want to restore or establish their business have the opportunity to do so on favorable terms. And this is exactly the task that the Innovation and Technology Center will face, among other things."

The final part of the first day of the international partners' working visit was a meeting with the rector, scientists and students of Vinnytsia National Technical University. Here, with the participation of the mayors and representatives of the twin cities, Vinnytsia Deputy Mayor Andrii Ocheretnyi, and, in particular, specialists from the Municipal Enterprise Spatial Development Agency, projects to improve urban mobility were presented. Noémie Berkoff, CEO of the startup company Urbanloop from Nancy, joined the online discussion.

The discussion focused on urban mobility solutions that are currently being piloted in Vinnytsia and will apply the experience of Nancy and Karlsruhe, with barrier-free and inclusive approaches as their main focus. International partners have expressed their readiness to jointly implement similar initiatives in Vinnytsia, as they see great potential and desire to adapt the infrastructure to European standards and already have good experience and best practices. Therefore, cooperation in this area will be beneficial for everyone, both at the level of resource support and its educational component, the participants summarized.

It is worth reminding that close contacts have already been established between our cities in the educational sphere over the past two years. In particular, Vinnytsia educational institutions have received tangible support in the form of humanitarian aid and through the organization of educational and recreational tours for schoolchildren. The students of Lyceum No. 1 had the opportunity to share their impressions of one of these trips directly with the mayors and representatives of friendly cities.