The Government and the public are committed to one target- the development of the state. This was stated by State Secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Volodymyr Bondarenko during the opening of the II National Forum of Civil Servants on Public Relations.

"We are all partners in one project - the development of our state and we all gathered here for this reason", Volodymyr Bondarenko emphasized, urging the participants of the forum to engage in constructive cooperation in order to work together to do what the society expects.

According to him, the cooperation between the state authorities and the public on the terms of partnership should result in joint responsibility for making important decisions.

The State Secretary stressed that the cooperation between the executive authorities and civil society institutions, involving them in shaping of state policy is one of the priorities for the Government, as well as an important element of the public administration reform.

"Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman is guided by the priority to hear everyone, society and challenges facing the authorities. Evidence of this is the effective implementation of the government-public initiative"Together against corruption", Volodymyr Bondarenko stressed.

Apart from that, he added that the state is pursuing a number of reforms, particularly making access to electronic services easier.

Volodymyr Bondarenko  thanked the international partners, in particular the OSCE, with the support of which the forum was held, the Open Space Works Cooperative, as well as representatives of academic institutions and institutions, civil society institutions, and experts.

He reminded that for the second time the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers, together with the OSCE Project Coordinator in Ukraine held such a large forum for the civil servants to  "synchronize their watches", to learn more about the tools of interaction with civil society institutions and to share experiences.

During the forum, participants will share their views on existing challenges in the work with the public and successful experience in solving problematic issues, gain new knowledge about effective tools of communication with the public, and develop recommendations on how to make cooperation between state authorities and the public more effective in the decision-making process.

Background

The cooperation between Government, public activists and experts allowed:

- to make a significant step forward in reforming the system of public procurement;

- to introduce "open data";

- to start reforming the civil service;

- to ensure proper implementation of the Open Government Partnership in Ukraine.