On April 21, the Committee of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on Industrial and Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship held a roundtable on “New Approaches to Development of Depressed Regions”. The participants discussed the questions of depressed regions and fostering their development and modern approaches to stimulating sustainable development of the regions by the state. Also, they discussed intergovernmental fiscal relations in context of introducing national policy instruments for supporting regions.
 

A variety of mechanisms is available for solving problems of the depressed regions therefore these mechanisms should be assessed and those suitable for Ukrainian context should be selected. Such mechanisms are development of small and medium business, public-private partnership, decentralisation and bottom-up budget formulation. One of such strategies is social mobilisation and establishing the Development Fund of depressed regions. This Fund is an instrument for engaging local population into process of determining priorities of local development. It establishes cooperation among stakeholders and attracts financial contributions.  Nataliya Korolevska, Head of Committee on Industrial and Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship said: “Social mobilisation allows applying local resources for stimulating sustainable development of the region”.
 

To eliminate depressive condition of the regions, it is important that regions play important role, determine priorities and have capacity to finance programs for social development. Oksana Remiga, UNDP Senior Programme Manager shared experience of UNDP local development Projects and stressed on importance of revising inter-governmental fiscal relation for good regional policy. “While attracting investments for economic development of  the regions of Ukraine it is important to remember that investors are interested not only in local natural resources, infrastructure and roads. They are also interested in social infrastructure, quality health care and education institutions. The role of local self-government is crucial in this context.  Revision of intergovernmental relations and local self-governance reform are essential for good regional policy and economic development”, said Oksana Remiga.
 

Olga Palagitska, secretary of Scholkino City Council and Municipal Coordinator in Scholkino municipality participated in the meeting of the Committee. Olga Palagitska told about Scholkino Industrial park, which has been operating in the municipality since end 2008 and expressed supported to Draft law “On Industrial Parks” №3071 dated 27.04.2009.
 

UNDP/MGSDP was initiated in 2004 for promoting democratic governance aimed at improving the livelihoods of people in urban areas across Ukraine under the framework of public-private partnership.

 The Programme cooperates with community-based organisations, academia and civil society organisations in 23 municipalities and 5 settlements of municipal type across Ukraine and other partners in private and public sectors. Together they apply various sustainable development mechanisms.

 Since 2004, UNDP/MGSDP supported 232 local community projects with a total cost of UAH 26.3 mn. For more information on the Project's activities, please visit: http://msdp.undp.org.ua