The development of mountainous regions of Ukraine is definitely an additional potential of our state, inter alia, in the direction of development of tourism, infrastructure, IT sphere, as well as human potential development. Deputy Prime Minister/Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine Hennadii Zubko commented on the Concept for the Development of Mountainous Areas of the Ukrainian Carpathians for 2019-2027, adopted by the Government today at its session.

According to him, highland areas of the Carpathian region - Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lviv and Chernivtsi regions, have always been in the focus of special attention for the Government. This territory is almost 60,000 square kilometers, with 715 highland settlements, the vast majority of which - 94% is villages with almost 978,000 residents.

"Our key goal is to turn mountainous areas into successful and highly-sought investment territories. This is possible through the introduction of new approaches to the development of infrastructure, medicine, tourism, the launch of new industries, creation of workplaces, enhanced economic cooperation and education, increased access to transport and information, and increased interregional and cross-border cooperation. Such a roadmap, which is enshrined in the Concept for the development of these territories, will speed up the implementation of the EU Strategy on the Carpathian region and give impetus to bringing the mountainous areas to a qualitatively new level", said Hennadii Zubko.

The Concept will be based on four main priorities:

• shaping of a competitive economy of mountainous areas;

• development of transport, industrial and social infrastructure;

• development of tourism potential;

• ensuring environmental safety.

It should be noted, there have been established 20 consolidated communities (CC) in the highland areas. The region has strong support: a draft law on sustainable development and creation of new jobs in highland settlements developed by the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services, support in the Parliament, funds from the SRDF (State Regional Development Fund), subventions for the CC infrastructure, the EU sectoral support, and local road funding. In 2018, the funding worth about UAH 8-9 billion has been allocated for 4 regions: almost UAH 1,000,000,000 – from SRDF, almost UAH 1,000,300,000 - for road infrastructure, development of rural medicine - UAH 1,000,200,000 etc.