On January, 20 in Lutsk the joint event of the HOVERLA USAID Project and the Association of Ukrainian Cities discussed legislative pillars of the local economic development. The event involved over 120 participants, discussing the key basics of Draft Law of Ukraine № 5323 On Amending the Law of Ukraine On the Pillars of the State Regional Policy, strategic planning of the regional and local development, as well as the condition and perspectives of the State Regional Development Foundation reform.

«The first thing defined by bill №5323 is the availability of development strategies at the state, region and municipality level. The strategy must be targeted to seven years and divided into two realization stages — three and four years. It makes it possible to amend the document and follow the planned being introduced. For municipalities to have an impetus to develop strategies, bill №5323 stipulates that those municipalities not having development strategies will not be funded by the state. This principle has already been followed regionally. At the same time, if a municipality has got state support for the project but failed it, it will be unable to be funded from the state budget the next three years», - reminded Ivan Lukerya, Deputy Minister of Communities and Territories of Ukraine.