MinRegion is working on the development of new effective mechanisms that will help unlock the potential of the Ukrainian regions. To achieve this, the Ministry has engaged representatives of the oblasts, Regional Development Agencies and the expert community. The work has been going on for already several months. Today in Cherkasy, MinRegion gathered representatives of all stakeholders to an all-Ukrainian meeting on topical issues of the formation and implementation of the state regional policy.

“The active process of reforming public administration, which takes place in the country today, requires urgent improvement of the state regional policy, provision of the oblasts with greater powers and tools to implement the regional development tasks, noted Vyacheslav Nehoda, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services. “Therefore, we are working on the development of new mechanisms, which will enable us to unlock the potential of the Ukrainian regions, use their competitive advantages, create new growth points.”

He specified that this year the Ministry focused its work on improving strategic planning of regional development, including the application of smart specialisation principles (ed: smart specialisation is a key component of cooperation within the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy on the possibility of using European structural and investment funds).

“It is also important for us to ensure a stable, predictable financing of regional development and increase the efficiency of using financial instruments, in particular, the resources of the State Fund for Regional Development,” added Vyacheslav Nehoda.

He noted that, according to the results of the two-day meeting, a list of concrete proposals and recommendations for legislative support of the process of the state regional policy formation and implementation and a plan of top-priority joint actions, within the framework of the Strategic Plan of MinRegion for 2018, should be prepared.

As part of a working visit to the Cherkasy Oblast, the First Deputy Minister also visited the Cherkasy Regional Development Agency, that has been operating in the oblast for more than a year and has managed to become one of the best in Ukraine over this time. During the brief working meeting, the parties discussed the potential and development opportunities of the Cherkasy Oblast, as now the Agency is involved in the elaboration of a three-year plan for implementing the Cherkasy Oblast 2020 strategy.

The all-Ukrainian meeting on the state regional policy formation and implementation is held under the organisational support of the U-LEAD with Europe Programme.