Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of regional development, construction, and housing and communal services, Gennadiy Zubko, discussed the issues of opening of Offices for implementation of reforms in all the regions of Ukraina during the meeting with Administrator of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), deputy Secretary General, Helen Clark.

“Presently, we are already at the stage of opening an Office on implementation of reforms in every oblast’. We think that this step will speed-up the decentralization processes, changes of administrative and territorial organization, voluntary unification of communities, provision of public services. Besides, this will contribute to faster implementation of e-government”, said Gennadiy Zubko.

The Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine stressed, that “the office will not be a governmental body, and, although supported by the government, it will be formed by activists from local communities”. “We are convinced, that this will facilitate the promotion of local self-government reform in Ukraine”, he noted.

According to Gennadiy Zubko, “the issue of training of personnel at the local level is extremely important, because when it comes to credit resources, and other development programmes, we should understand who is going to implement these programmes, and work with these credit resources”.

“We have a strong need for holding consultations at the local level – we are getting requests, concerning territorial unification and decentralization, from experts and specialists of every community”, the Vice-Prime Minister stressed.

Gennadiy Zubko is convinced, that such Offices for reforms will coordinate their work with local communities, and offered UNDP to actively participate in such form of cooperation. He says that the offices will also facilitate the preparation of Prospective plans of unification of communities, which represent an important component of territorial development.

Helen Clark, in her turn, approved the initiative: “Creation of such an office is a very promising initiative, and we must study this information, in order to understand how we can cooperate”.

“We would be much interested in cooperation with you”, she stressed.

Helen Clark supported the need for “training of local specialists in the context of decentralization, as it is often the case, that when the responsibilities are delegated, there is no one to fulfil them”.

“If we are able to support this work from our side, I think, we will be glad to do so”, she underlined.