The Ministry of Economy’s Order No. 4901 dated 10 April 2026 has come into force, thereby approving the Methodological Recommendations (essentially, standard guidelines for preparing public investment projects).

The official website of the Ministry has reported this.

The state is moving away from the practice of ‘seeking funding for individual ideas’ to the systematic formation of a portfolio of projects that meet the requirements of international donors. Uniform rules are necessary so that any project – whether national, regional or local – is prepared to the same standards.

A clear three-tier project selection system is introduced:

• Strategic level – projects from the State’s Unified Project Portfolio;
• Programme level – projects within targeted programmes (energy, logistics, etc.);
• Sectoral level – projects important for specific sectors.

Local-level projects (schools, hospitals, roads, water supply, and so on) are considered at the third, sectoral level. They must be included in the community's unified project portfolio and undergo a sectoral assessment.

Uniform rules create a transparent selection mechanism. If a community project meets the criteria and is selected, it receives support for preparation (development of design documentation, feasibility studies, research) from international programmes.

What should local governments know?

• The standard rules do not impose new obligations on communities, but describe the procedure by which the state and donors manage projects.
• All work will be done through the DREAM system (which is currently used instead of the EIS).
• Important: the project initiator must clearly specify the requirement – exactly what is needed for preparation (project documentation? research? analysis?).

In the past, many good projects stalled due to poor-quality documentation or failure to meet donor requirements. The unified rules are designed to rectify this. For the community, this means: if your project has made it into the portfolio and is well-justified, it has a real chance of receiving support.