The Verkhovna Rada Committee on Budget held a meeting of the Commission for the assessment and selection of investment programmes and regional development projects, which can be implemented at the expense of the State Fund for Regional Development.

Alyona Babak, Minister of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, informed that in September, 52 projects financed in 2019 at the expense of the state budget were completed. Another 435, according to oblast state administrations, will be implemented by the end of the year. The largest number of projects are planned to be completed in the Donetsk (46), Zakarpattia (37), Zhytomyr (35), Sumy (30), Luhansk (30), Khmelnytskyi (26), Ivano-Frankivsk (25), Ternopil (23), Chernihiv ( 22) and Kherson (21) Oblasts.

The total amount of SFRD funds is UAH 7 160.0 million, of which UAH 6 738.8 million are allocated to finance 691 projects. The undistributed balance amounts to UAH 431.2 million.

Oblast state administrations (except for the Donetsk, Kyiv, Poltava OSAa and Kyiv City State Administration) submitted proposals for redistribution of funds between 116 projects. Thus, about UAH 160 million will be distributed and the remaining balance will make up UAH 273 million.

The remaining funds will be allocated among the projects to be completed in 2019 or those that can be put into operation in 2020 with additional funding.

The largest balance of unallocated funds to be returned to the State Budget is UAH 132 million in the Donetsk Oblast, UAH 93.3 million in Kyiv city, UAH 24.5 million in the Kharkiv Oblast and UAH 13.4 million in the Kherson Oblast.

The Minister stressed that on 14 November, MinRegion sent a letter to the OSAs to accelerate submission of the list of projects to be financed in 2020 at the expense of the SFRD.

“Since the National and Regional Development Strategies expire in 2020, the state administrations need to ensure completion of the projects financed by the SFRD next year, by maximising local budget funds. The remainder of the funds (after inclusion in the list of all transitional projects) will be allocated exclusively to projects that provide economic development,” the Minister said.