For the first time in the history of independent Ukraine, local communities will manage land and funds independently and decide where to direct the resource. This was emphasized by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during a regular meeting of the Government on October 28.

According to the Prime Minister, local elections on October 25 were an important intermediate stage in decentralization reform.

"From now on, local government representatives will have many more resources to solve the problems of Ukrainians on the ground. In the past, and probably still, there is a practice when the inhabitants of a town, in response to a request to solve the problem, hear only excuses and pointing fingers that "we are not given money from the center." This is a lie, the logic is different now. More than UAH 500 billion will be accumulated in local budget accounts, and more than 2 million hectares of agricultural land have already been transferred to communities," said Denys Shmyhal.

The Prime Minister stressed that the repair of a road, reconstruction of a park, facade of the school or kindergarten is no longer an achievement, but a usual practice, given the resources that local authorities will have.

"Local governments are now capable to do much more. Elected city heads and deputies have taken responsibility for organizing effective living space for people," said Denys Shmyhal.

For its part, the Government, according to the Prime Minister, will continue work on improving the regulatory framework for the implementation of administrative and territorial reform and consolidating its success.

Denys Shmyhal stressed that after the first round of local elections it is no less important that local budgets are approved on time and start working for the people.

"I want to emphasize another important point: from January 1, 2021, all communities, which is almost one and a half thousand, will switch to direct inter-budgetary relations with the state budget," said the Prime Minister.

As Denys Shmyhal noted, a number of communities will form a budget for the first time, and some will be reformatted due to changes in the administrative-territorial system. "Given this, it is crucial not to delay the consideration of the State Budget for 2021. This will directly affect the duration of local budgets formation," he noted.

The Prime Minister noted that in accordance with the provisions of the Budget Code, local budgets are adopted following the adoption of the State Budget. "New districts, territorial communities should have time to adopt their local budgets," said Denys Shmyhal.

The Head of the Government called on parliamentarians to consider and adopt the budget for 2021 as soon as possible.