Local Investment and National Competitiveness (LINC) was an ambitious project of the United States Agency for International Development. Its mission was to help increase competitiveness in cities and economic regions by systematically helping to improve business conditions and practices at both the local and national level. The LINC project did so through a number of activities, including: promotion of economic reform at the national level; support for economic development and competitiveness strategic planning efforts in cities and economic regions; alleviation of administrative and regulatory barriers to investment and exports; fostering of public-private partnerships, as well as other tasks. The program also assisted the Autonomous Republic of Crimea to improve its business and investment environment by streamlining the work of permit-issuing one-stop shops, and enhancing the ability of key industries to integrate Crimean goods and services into higher-value markets.
In 2010, the Government of Ukraine reformed its registration system unifying registration services under one institution. The LINC project provided assistance to the new State Registration Service (SRS) to build its capacity to implement the property rights registration reform. Efforts were aimed at getting the SRS staff ready to perform registration functions through training programs, including TOT, technical advice, and public information on property rights registration.
Objectives
- Objective 1: Improving the business enabling environment
- Task 1: Promote economic reform at the national level
Outcomes
- Increased the operability of the property rights registration service as an integral part of a transparent and efficient land market
- Developed professional education program for state registrars , including a manual and training videos distributed to regional State Registration Service offices around the country
- Trained over 300 newly hired lawyers on new legal requirements of property rights registration
- Equipped 610 local State Registration Service offices with information boards for visitors
- Designed a public information campaign on property rights registration system in 2013