Strategic management planning as a tool in advanced local governments

The challenges the local governments (LGs) are facing in contemporary developed societies are getting larger and more complex. LGs have to deal with tasks relating to fulfillment of certain parts (in certain cases of a whole) of some of the key public functions which are arranging the life in local communities: land use of urban planning, organization and management of public services (like local water supply system, solid waste disposal, waste water treatment, public cleaning, maintaining and managing of city green areas, organizing distant heating system, etc.) along with some of conventional local governmental (administrative) functions. In the recent years, one of the LG functions, which is certainly becoming one of the most important one, is – an active role in economic development initiating through attracting the foreign investors, encouraging the self-employment process, SMEs development, etc. In such conditions, the strategic management planning becomes an essential tool that “managers” of local governments are using in order to provide efficient use of local governments resources and their long-term prosperity