The State Fund for Regional Development Should Become a Separate Autonomous Institution — Vitalii Bezghin

The State Fund for Regional Development is to be transformed into a separate autonomous institution capable of attracting not only state funding but also grants and partner financing.

This will also expand the Fund’s capabilities, including supporting small communities that lack sufficient working capital to participate in European programmes where funding arrives after a project is implemented.

“I see the State Fund for Regional Development in the future as an autonomous institution. This brings us to the next step — strategic planning and whether there is a link between strategic planning and real projects. My reasoning is that community, regional and state strategies must be synchronised. State funds should go to projects that correspond to these shared priorities,” Vitalii Bezghin, Minister for Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine, said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

The approach to distributing the Fund’s resources is also to change. Instead of focusing only on population size and the tax capacity of local budgets, functional territory types will be considered.

This will enable a more accurate assessment of the needs of territories whose populations have declined because of the war.

Changes to the rules for distributing and using the Fund’s resources are to be prepared in the first quarter of next year, so communities can prepare in advance for the new approach and plan their projects.

More on the Fund’s transformation, strategic planning and other Ministry priorities is available in Vitalii Bezghin’s interview with Interfax-Ukraine at: https://interfax.com.ua/news/interview/1212807.html