The meeting concerned issues related to the financing of measures to counteract the coronavirus, the state of local budgets and the economic problems of cities.

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal held a conference call with the heads of city state administrations (CSA) - members of the Association of Ukrainian Cities on Friday, April 17.

The meeting was also attended by First Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Serhii Trofimov, Kyiv CSA Vitalii Klytchko as Chairman of the Association of Ukrainian Cities, Minister for Communities and Territories Development Oleksii Chernyshov, Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleh Nemchynov, First Deputy Minister of Finance Denys Uliutin and other representatives of the Government.

The Prime Minister stated that the essential problem of today is compliance with quarantine restrictions and safe passage of public holidays.

“All that requires close attention from local authorities. On Wednesday, at its regular meeting, the Government will approve the procedure for allocating funds to combat COVID-19. All doctors involved in the fight against coronavirus should be paid an increased salary. It includes the entire emergency medicine sector and doctors of all medical establishments, which are defined as first-wave because they are the first to admit patients,” the Head of Government stressed.

During the meeting, the city heads raised issues of filling local budgets.

Denys Shmyhal informed that the funding from the Response Fund created to curb coronavirus and its consequences will be directed to medicine and extra pay to doctors, and hence the resource will return to the regions.

The CSA heads also raised an issue of the possibility of obtaining repayment holidays for cities under projects that are being implemented jointly with the World Bank, the EBRD and other international financial institutions.

“The Government expresses readiness to mediate the talks aimed to raise funds for cities in a centralized way. International financial institutions offer various types of assistance to the state. We would suggest that they direct this assistance, for example, not for procurements, but for reimbursement of part of the interest on loans, in order to remove this burden from cities,” stressed Denys Shmyhal.

The Prime Minister called on the Association of Ukrainian Cities to submit a proposal on this issue in the near future.