Today, within the framework of the All-Ukrainian Forum "Ukraine 30", the Communities and Territories Development Council’s meeting took place. During this event, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the establishment of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities.

The Congress, chaired by the President of Ukraine, will consist of the Chamber of Local Authorities and the Chamber of Regions, which are to delegate 3 people each to the presidium of this body that will be represented by senior officials of the country.

"Relations between the center and communities must become completely new, I would say - qualitatively new. They must be constructive, transparent and effective. To this end, we are setting up a Congress of Local and Regional Authorities under the President of Ukraine. It will become a platform for dialogue and decision-making," the President said in a statement at a meeting of the Communities and Territories Development Council.

The Presidium of the Congress shall meet monthly while Chambers shall meet quarterly and submit proposals to the Congress agenda. General meetings of the Congress shall be held every six months or on request.

"Regional development is a priority for the state. We should actually connect Ukraine in the economic, infrastructural and humanitarian spheres," said Oleksii Chernyshov, Minister of Communities and Territories Development, in his statement at the Council’s meeting.

According to him, the year of 2020 was a year of decentralization breakthrough. The foundation was created for the formation and operation of newly established local governments. Now it is crucial to build new modern systems of local self-government and executive bodies on this basis.

In order to systematically address the problems of socio-economic development, the Government has approved the State Regional Development Strategy until 2027, which proposes new approaches to public regional policy.

"We have created affluent communities, so limited resources need to be directed to various development projects. Such investments should create, first of all, jobs and added value in regions, cities, communities, districts and stimulate the attraction of resources of private investors," the Minister summed up.