Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Swiss Foreign Affairs Minister Ignazio Cassis gave a green light to the preparations for the 5th Ukraine Reform Conference 2022.

Source: Communications Department of the Secretariat of the CMU

Ukraine Reform Conference (URC) is a key annual international event that brings together Ukrainian and foreign officials, private sector, expert community and civil society representatives to take stock of the reforms in Ukraine and discuss further reform priorities. Following the previous URC editions in Vilnius (2021), Toronto (2019), Copenhagen (2018), and London (2017), in 2022 Ukraine Reform Conference will be held in Lugano (Switzerland).

Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal and Vice President, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of the Swiss Confederation Ignazio Cassis opened the conference "On the Road to Lugano: Decentralization".

During the event, preparations for the 5th Ukraine Reform Conference  in 2022, which will be held in Lugano, Switzerland, were officially announced.

The Prime Minister of Ukraine stressed that Switzerland’s assistance through the DESPRO project in implementing reforms, including decentralization, is extremely important. According to international partners and Ukrainian society, decentralization is recognised as the most successful reform in Ukraine.

“The State has transferred a significant part of its powers, resources and responsibilities from the executive authorities to the local self-government bodies of territorial communities. Budget and tax decentralization allowed to increase the own revenues of local budgets of territorial communities by UAH 79 billion in the draft State Budget for 2022,” Denys Shmyhal noted.

According to the Prime Minister, decentralization in the field of land relations provided territorial communities with additional land resources that were in state ownership. In addition, administrative service centers have been opened in 1,003 out of 1,420 consolidated communities, providing prompt and high-quality public services throughout the country.

"The administrative and territorial structure of the country has been improved. The new system of local self-government is built taking into account the provisions of the European Charter of Local Self-Government. Instead of more than 11,000 small, insolvent territorial communities, 1470 consolidated communities with the same status and direct inter-budgetary relations have been created,” the Head of the Government of Ukraine emphasized.

Swiss Vice President Ignazio Cassis dwelled on that Switzerland has been supporting an ambitious reform programme in Ukraine for more than 25 years and will remain its reliable partner.

"With President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, we have agreed to focus the forthcoming Conference on two thematic pillars: stability on the one hand and prosperity and prosperity on the other," said Ignazio Cassis.

According to the Vice President of Switzerland, the first block deals with the regrouping of such reforms as the fight against corruption and strengthening local self-government. The second block, according the VP of Switzerland , encapsulates economic reforms: encouraging privatization and corporate governance, developing environmental thinking and investing in human capital, which will promote inclusive development and allow everyone in the country to receive social and economic benefits.