President of Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskyy: Civil servants should work in the interests of citizens, and decentralization should be enhanced to improve living standards in the regions

1 March 2021 - 21:06

Public administration reform and regional development were discussed at a meeting chaired by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The strategies presented by the Cabinet of Ministers and the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine have been developed on the basis of the President's election program.

"A citizen must trust the state - only then will Ukraine be successful. And for this we need to build a professional and honest civil service that works in the interests of citizens. We must ensure full openness of the government and efficient use of resources," Volodymyr Zelenskyy stressed during the meeting.

Minister of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Oleh Nemchinov said that the government is working to develop a system of executive bodies understandable to citizens, so that the dialogue and interaction between the authorities and citizens would be transparent and comfortable. To do this, the speed and quality of administrative services should be increased, and an objective assessment of the socio-demographic situation in the country should be provided, which will allow for effective financing of the social, educational, medical and cultural spheres.

"Digitization, transparency, involvement of youth in public administration, educational work - all these are an integral part of the goals set," he noted.

The parties stressed that deepening the decentralization of power is needed to reform public administration.

"The authorities should see the problems on the ground, not from the windows of their Kyiv offices. Deepening decentralization will raise living standards in the regions and give a chance for employment on the ground," the President said.

In particular, the parties talked about quality public services and effective regional management, effective local self-government, digitization of regions, housing loans, quality water supply and household waste management.

"The amount of attracted private capital and the number of jobs created will be the main indicators of regional development, as the social sphere will develop from this, the amount of tax revenues will depend on this. In a few years we will build a convenient and accessible infrastructure: one hundred percent of schools will meet the best conditions of comfortable space, each community of up to 20,000 residents will have a quality stadium, emergency care will arrive in no more than 20 minutes,” Minister of Communities and Territories Development Oleksiy Chernyshov said.