In September, MinRegion plans to submit to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine the State Programme for the Development of the Ukrainian Carpathian Region for 2020-2022, as required by the Presidential Decree of 22 July 2019.

Vyacheslav Nehoda, First Deputy Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, said this during a roundtable discussion on the prospects for the development of mountainous territories of the Ukrainian Carpathians, held on 12 August in Uzhgorod.

“The Presidential Decree should give a significant impetus to the development of the mountainous territories of the Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Chernivtsi Oblasts. Although two months are not enough to prepare a high-quality state programme, it is quite realistic in case of the Carpathian region. We are not starting from scratch – development of the mountainous areas for the first time is one of the priorities of MinRegion and the Government as a whole. The joint work of our specialists, Ukrainian and international experts resulted in the Concept for development of mountainous territories of the Ukrainian Carpathians, approved by the Government in April this year. While developing this document, we have used the best European experience – that of Austria, Slovenia, France, Sweden, Italy, Spain. Most of our work will be the basis for the future State Programme,” said Vyacheslav Nehoda.

According to him, the main directions of the State Programme will include:

• development of traditional and most promising types of economic activity, forestry and agriculture in the region;
• environmental safety in the region, forests’ restorarion and landscape structure optimisation;
• preservation of historical and cultural heritage.
• Increase of transport and information accessibility, etc.

“This State Programme should be supported with a line in the next year's State Budget with a specific sum. And its volume will depend on the measures that we will jointly offer you,” Vyacheslav Nehoda addressed the Zakarpattia Oblast’s regional authorities.

One of the priority measures in the framework of the future State Programme should be to develop a scheme for planning the mountainous territories of the Ukrainian Carpathians. This scheme will include proposals on perspective directions of spatial development of mountainous areas, rational use of natural resources, preservation of natural and cultural heritage etc.

Another important point, according to the First Deputy Minister, is a constant monitoring of the development of these territories. “Everyone should be able to see how the territory is developing, how projects are being implemented. In particular, we need it to be able to respond quickly to problems,” Vyacheslav Nehoda explained.

He recalled that MinRegion is already working on the development of an Interactive Monitoring System that will allow to monitor and evaluate the state of socio-economic development of mountainous areas, including implementation of measures of the future State Programme, in real time.

“It is also important that the measures to support the development of the mountainous areas, which we will jointly offer with you, are in line with the strategic regional development documents. In addition, the priorities for the development of mountainous areas should be clearly identified in each regional development strategy,” Vyacheslav Negoda summarised.