From now on strategic planning of regional development will necessarily contain SMART-specialisation elements. It makes up the future of regional development, said Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, commenting on the adoption of the relevant resolution at the Governmental meeting.

“Smart-specialisation is an opportunity to turn synergy of science, business and local self-government into completely new investment prospects of the regions and bring hromadas to a new level of development. It will enable innovations’ introduction, use of modern scientific developments, application of swot-analysis of projects, creation of new competitive activities. It is, in fact, a new instrument of regional policy to help increase the investment activity and competitiveness of the regions,” emphasised Hennadii Zubko.

According to him, 120 strategies of smart-specialisation have been developed at the regional and national levels in the European Union. This approach is already being applied in 12 countries, and in pilot oblasts of Ukraine: the Zaporizhzhia, Odesa and Kharkiv ones.

“If we want to economically integrate with the EU common market, join the global value-added chains, we are simply weirded to implement the ideas of regional smart-specialisation in Ukraine,” the official stressed.