The decentralization reform, establishment of the unified territorial communities will revive Ukrainian rural areas and as a result recover the Ukrainian economy.
Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman said this opening the roundtable entitled "100 days of unified territorial communities: achievements, problems and prospects" on Tuesday.
"We have to offer a model, actually already ongoing model, of the revival of the Ukrainian rural areas, recovery of the national economy," he said addressing representatives of territorial communities, local self-government bodies, executive bodies and international partners.
Groysman reminded that over 100 days, a total of 159 territorial communities have united. He informed that a standalone subvention worth UAH 1 billion is envisioned to support the unified territorial communities.
The Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada said that the issue of competence of bodies of state power, local self-government bodies and territorial communities in Ukraine is particularly crucial today.
Groysman noted that the Verkhovna Rada protected financial decentralization in the state budget for 2016. "It was the Ukrainian Parliament to render decisions allowing elaboration of laws, and their later adoption. Our today's meeting is the evidence that the Parliament is not standing apart from the ongoing processes," he said.
He also noted that the funds to be delivered to the local budgets as a result of the financial decentralization have to be used to create jobs, which will facilitate the recovery of the local economy.
He said that every village, community and city have to ensure proper living conditions for the people, in particular, in the fields of education, health care, infrastructure and culture. "We have to pass all the authorities to the local level to let you run the land within your community," the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada said.
At the same time, the Chairperson of the Ukrainian Parliament said that there is an opportunity of voluntary unification of communities, which is destined to consolidate the local democracy. "We have to prove, to let people acknowledge that their future depends on them," Groysman noted.
At the same time, the Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada highly appreciated the position and bravery of the first leaders of the unified territorial communities, who "had undertaken huge work to make the communities run."
Groysman assured of Parliament's direct assistance in the local self-government reform, decentralization and unification of territorial communities.