Ukraine needs consolidation for development. It should  be aimed at yielding specific results for every Ukrainian who brings a child to a kindergarten, school or applies for medical or administrative services, said Hennadii Zubko, Vice Prime Minister/ Minister for Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine at the Regional Development Council chaired by the President of Ukraine.

 "The country needs new quality of management, opportunities and responsibility. And in this context, the successful implementation of the decentralization reform, which unites the country through amalgamation is incredibly important. According to perspective plans, we already have 1210 consolidated communities (CCs) approved by the Government, that cover 77.2% of Ukraine. But we do not stop, and face a challenge to form all perspective plans of  all regions with full coverage of Ukraine’s territory in 2019. The same applies to the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and the annexed Crimea, depicted with white spots on the current map. The Ukrainians, who are hostages forced to go to fake elections at gun point, must clearly see their place in European Ukraine, " Hennadii Zubko noted.

According to him, decentralization enables each community to shape its development strategy. "In 2019, all CCs should shape strategies aimed at showing what will be going on within the territories not only to Ukrainians, but primarily indicating promising areas for investment, human resources, etc., to investors," Hennadii Zubko underscored.

The Vice Prime Minister stressed that 865 CCs, uniting almost 8.5 million Ukrainians, have been created in Ukraine. For comparison, in 2015, there have been established159 CCs, in 2016 – 366 CCs and in 2017 – 665 CCs. "Our task  is to ensure by 2020 100% coverage of Ukraine with CCs with full transfer of powers, resources and opportunities. And for this purpose, we constantly provide communities with incentives and additional motivation. This year, we have adopted a law that allowed accession of communities to cities without holding elections. And already 16 cities have increased their capabilities due to amalgamation,"  he stated.