Volodymyr Groysman: Ministry of Regional Development will coordinate the work of Ukrainian officials and the international donor mission to assess the needs of East Ukraine to recover

The Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities will coordinate the joint work of the Ukrainian Government and a mission comprised of the representatives of the World Bank, the United Nations and the European Union to assess the needs of Eastern Ukraine. This was announced by Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine, Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Utilities Volodymyr Groysman during a meeting with members of the mission.

"We are facing a difficult task which is to recover Eastern Ukraine, I want to assure you how important it is to ensure the coordination of local authorities, central government and donors to achieve the goal, we need objectivity to use a mechanism of needs assessment. We all have to understand where we are, what our objectives include, the time frames in order to clearly define our future cooperation," stressed Volodymyr Groysman.

As reported, in early October, a joint mission of the UN, the World Bank and the EU, at the invitation of the Government of Ukraine, implemented the first phase of the needs assessment for the restoration of Donbas.

According to the WB Country Director for Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, Europe and Central Asia Qimiao Fan, a team of international experts arrived to Kiev to prolong activities, but in synergy with the Ukrainian officials. He also said that in December, the mission planned to prepare a General Report on the needs of the region – namely of those areas, being under the control by the Ukrainian authorities. Ukrainian ministries will be engaged in the course of preparing of the Report.

"The speed of the needs assessment will depend on the speed and extent of providing data, which will be prepared by the authorities - both central and local. Time frames are rather strict, we want to help you," said Qimiao Fan.

Tomorrow, the World Bank experts will begin a two-day seminar for representatives of a number of Ukrainian ministries, where officials will have chance to familiarize themselves with the assessment methodology, the mission specialists apply in their activity.