“I congratulate all the newly elected heads of amalgamated hromadas and would like to emphasise that since now you will start managing a great deal of work. You need to become decentralisation leaders in your hromadas, because your victory at the elections is already an evidence of your determination and responsibility.” emphasised Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister – Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine, at the forum of local hromadas.

"Heads of AHs who have taken responsibility, having powers, resources, perspective vision, must understand the needs of their citizens. After the elections that took place in Ukraine on 29 October, 665 hromadas have been amalgamated in Ukraine, of which 159 (formed in 2015) have already shown real success in amalgamation, responsibility and implementation of promising projects," said Hennadii Zubko.

The Vice Prime Minister emphasised that Ukraine has its peculiarities in contrast to France, Germany and Holland, that have 5-7% of the rural population. "The rural population of Ukraine is currently more than 35%, and it is the quality of social services that we need to return to the countryside that requires it," Zubko said.

According to him, currently 3.6 million rural residents have been already living in AHs (in total, 5.7 million residents live in AHs, including the urban population, - Ed.), and more than 9 million people are to be amalgamated in hromadas. "The newly formed hromadas should be provided with the necessary high-quality service with the implementation of healthcare and education reforms, administrative services, and planning of territories. These high-quality services must be provided jointly by us," the government official said.

Hennadii Zubko called on the newly elected heads of AHs to prepare perspective projects to be implemented in each hromada. "You must define priorities, development strategies for 1-2-3 years, find out the number of settlements that have problematic issues and build a route map of projects that will be partly funded by the state and hromadas’ funds. Without this work, the idea will remain on paper and will have no real implementation. Therefore, I once again emphasise that the state will provide not only organisational and financial support, but also recommendations, typical projects and decisions. Your main task is to provide high-quality services for your citizens," he stressed.