Decentralisation is the most successful of all implemented reforms in Ukraine. It has the greatest trust and support from society, citizens, and the international community. And today we gathered at an expanded governmental meeting to discuss key issues and challenges for implementing the decentralisation reform for the current year and the future, announced Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, at the expanded governmental meeting on decentralisation and regional development with participation of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman, representatives of the Government, heads of the OSA, city councils and AHs.

"The decentralisation reform and the state policy we are implementing within its framework have one goal of human potential development. Therefore, I want to draw attention of the leaders of oblast councils, heads of oblast state administrations, city and AH heads to two important indicators, which will be considered during evaluation of each region. The first is the regional human development index, which is important for us and is based on the main components, such as health and longevity, access to education, decent living standards. This is the very index that will help to keep people and attract additional resources. And the second is the regional competitiveness index, which determines the regions’ ability to create an attractive environment for business and investment development," said Hennadii Zubko.

According to him, decentralisation already forms a new comfortable living space in the regions. 728 AHs are established, but the main criterion is not the number of hromadas, but qualitative indicators – i.e. the number of people united (now more than 6 million), the territory covered by amalgamated hromadas in the oblast, number of projects implemented and quality of services provided. "We have 728 new leaders, new managers, who have taken responsibility for the development of their hromadas, and hence the entire country. But we are mostly concerned about 152 out of 468 rayons with no AHs established. Therefore, the first task is to close these gaps. And this is what we have to do together with you," Hennadii Zubko said.

The Vice Prime Minister called the Parliament's adoption of a route map of 17 decentralised laws, establishment of modern ASCs, New Educational Space, citizens' safety centres, modern outpatient clinics, family-type orphanages, etc., as the key tasks for the current year and for the future.

"A strong state support, which grows annually, is envisaged for implementation of these projects and hromada development. And if counted according to various indicators, it turns out to be over UAH 37 billion. Add UAH 192 billion of local budgets to this. Therefore, their implementation is an absolutely possible task," noted the official.