Approaches to governance in Ukraine should be changed towards development of the potential and gradually abandoning external support. This was stated by Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman in his statement for the participants of the general assembly of the Association of Ukrainian Cities.

He stressed that the practice of "holding out a begging bowl" in search of sources of funding should become history.

“We must change attitude! We must open up the potential for the development of the national economy,” stressed Volodymyr Groysman, “Each particular region should put emphasis on the development of economy.”

The Prime Minister accentuated that in this regard decentralisation provided a number of instruments. At that, the transfer of resources is considered insufficient. “It is crucial to direct funding to improve the quality of people’s lives and the growth of the national economy”, urged Volodymyr Groysman.

He stressed that necessary changes are being introduced at the central level, in particular a number of initiatives have been launched – from fundamental transformations in the social sphere to improving business conditions and legislative support for entrepreneurship. 

“Apart from that, local councils should create transparent rules for making business and entrepreneurship, while law enforcement agencies should abandon exerting pressure on business,” emphasised Volodymyr Groysman. “We are talking about a 3% GDP growth, which means production manufactured to the tune of UAH 400 billion, new jobs, your local budgets. At that, a growing trend can be increased by 5% or more, hence we gradually move to a completely different level of relations.”

The Head of Government urged city mayors to “speak about economy instead of speaking about money” - about de-shadowing of salaries, creating workplaces, improving the quality of education, building kindergartens, schools, etc.
“I believe that by the end of 2018 we will sum up the actual results of activities," the Prime Minister underscored.