The decentralization reform being pursued by the Ukrainian Government is now regarded by many experts as the most important and successful of all the reforms launched after the Euromaidan events. Its key goal is that every person should live in a sustainable and capable community. And we did it - we transferred the authority, resources, responsibility. The Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, the Minister of Regional Development, Construction, Housing and Communal Services Hennadii Zubko said in an interview with UNIA “Ukrinform”.

“Since the beginning of decentralization in 2014, the country has had 10,998 rural, local and small local communities. Today, out of that number 4,277 have amalgamated in 924 sustainable communities. That is about 40 percent consolidated communities”, said Hennadii Zubko.

According to him, perspective plans development should be finalized this year, which will show what the country will be like after the amalgamation is completed. This general perspective plan has already been formed for 85 percent of Ukraine's territory. So, the objective is absolutely realistic - to form a 100% coverage of the perspective plans for the whole territory of Ukraine by the end of this year.

“If we consider the most optimistic scenario when all communities become capable, then there are approximately 1,400 communities. If we take the perspective plan that we have today, there are approximately 1,540-1,550 communities. They are a bit smaller, but this is the perspective plan that the regions show to us now. That is, we are definitely passing the point of no return”, said Hennadii Zubko.

He stressed that among the critical objectives was not only to consolidate the community but also to build a management system that would enable development. “It is the management system that makes people aware that they have the resources, the tax base, and they can plan for three or five years ahead - just allowing them to see their opportunities to make sectoral changes. And the main issue is the issue of human development. Because only on conditions when there is a new quality of services, a new management system, when there is a possibility of delegation of all powers, there occurs a possibility of attracting investments”, the official stressed.