Ukraine should become a country of cohesive amalgamated hromadas run by people who respect their fellow villagers and voters, said Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman during a talk with journalists in the Nosivska AH of the Chernihiv Oblast. The hromada was founded in 2016 and now unites dozens of villages and the rayon centre – the city of Nosivka. Since amalgamation, the consolidated budget of the hromada, taking into account direct budgetary subventions, has increased from UAH 25 million to UAH 165 million. Here they complete construction of a secondary school, which lasted for almost 30 years, renew equipment of the rayon hospital – in accordance with the requirements of the Free Diagnostics programme, motivate young professionals to provide housing. Last year Nosivka renovated the central road and is gradually asphalting urban roads.

The Head of Government visited a local sports school, attended by the winners of major international competitions, that has hockey playgrounds and renovated football stadium, inspected the progress of the completion of the administrative service centre, and got acquainted with the work of the local communal enterprise Nosivka - Komunalnyk, which provides a range of services, including maintenance of road surfaces.

"Where the leader is responsible, professional, and respects his/her voters, there is order and solving of problems not solved for decades," said Volodymyr Groysman. "I travel a lot around the country, see how decentralisation goes on. I want to see Ukraine as a country of amalgamated hromadas. I believe that in 2020, the amalgamation process should be completed."

The Head of Government stressed thate existence of such hromadas is the goal of decentralisation, which today must be protected and further developed. “We have already begun public discussion of changes to the Constitution – in terms of enshrining decentralisation. We have decided to downsize rayon administrations. Our main priority is to ensure that hromadas are full-fledged, have powers and there are no superstructures over them,” said Volodymyr Groysman.

He emphasised that hromadas’ capacity is a new quality of life, a new quality of services – educational, medical, social, administrative. And this quality must be communicated not only to big cities, but also to small rayon centres. In this context, the Head of Government recalled another decision of the Government – to redistribute the funds of the State Fund for Regional Development in favour of small cities that have not yet been able to implement projects demanded by people. “My focus is on small cities that need additional support,” added the Prime Minister.