Forum of united territorial communities to be held in Kyiv on Dec. 5

The third forum of the united territorial communities devoted to the issues of economic development of regions will be opened in Kyiv under the slogan "Strong communities mean a strong country."

The event will be held with the assistance of Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman on December 5, the Government portal reports.

"Today it is vitally important to see initiative both from local authorities and community’s leadership in order to move forward and to take full advantage of opportunities that have been already created," Groysman stressed.

According to the representatives of the Organizing Committee of the Forum, economic development of regions is the next stage of the decentralization reform. Sufficient administrative powers and resources have been already transferred to the regions, including agricultural land outside of settlements. The existing opportunities allowed to significantly increase the local budgets. So, now the united territorial communities face the task of multiplying their assets by attracting entrepreneurial capital, joint investment in development of infrastructure.

For four years, 850 well-developed territorial communities have been already created in Ukraine which brought together about 4,000 local councils and more than 7 millions of people. Financial decentralization has triggered the growth of local budgets by 3-7 times. In addition, the state also allocated financial assistance for the development of territories.

 According to the organizers' plans, representatives of local self-governments of all levels, MPs, representatives of international donor and expert communities will take part in the forum of united territorial communities.

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