The process of decentralization in Ukraine has encouraged active competition among cities: for professionals, resources and investments. These days, heads of cities often speak about the importance of developing entrepreneurship and expect an inflow of investments. The project Transparency and Integrity of the Public Sector works on helping municipal managers, potential investors, entrepreneurs and NGO leaders to assess the level of investment transparency of 100 largest cities in Ukraine. By studying investment sector transparency, we measure the potential managerial capability of municipalities in the respective sector.

The research of investment sector transparency is the 14th accountability area in the big study Transparency Ranking of 100 Largest Ukrainian Cities, that TI Ukraine has been working on for a year and a half now. It shows that intensification of the competition among cities leads to establishment of new transparency standards for local authorities.

With the help of the biggest international financial organizations, business associations and international technical assistance projects, we have defined 17 key indicators for the investment research. The indicators are connected with the regulatory policy, work with international technical assistance programs, investment proposals and many other things.

The research shows that only 15 communities out of 100 have a city geoportal, fewer than half the cities have approved a special program facilitating entrepreneurship and finance it, and fewer than 40% of cities have published an investment passport in English and Ukrainian. Only 4 cities out of 100 have implemented electronic auctions for sale of seasonal trade placement rights.

What is special about this research is that cities have a chance to improve their position in the ranking in real time mode, implementing investment sector transparency standards according to our recommendations. The project aims at helping active managers in municipalities to use best practices, not just at illustrating the current situation. We believe that sustainable development of cities is one of the key tools of rapid economic development, and it is impossible without transparency and high capacity of cities in investment sector as well as without development of entrepreneurship in communities.