APPROACH OF SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN UKRAINE

On the way of European integration, the Ukrainian government poses the number of priority tasks which need to be solved before entering the European Union. Among them is: - reforms in relations between government institutions and main socio-economical activities, - definition of the principles of sustainable development at the national, regional and local levels; - adherence of sustainable socio-economic development of the regions and enhance their competitiveness. Practical implementation of these tasks requires the improvement of the national system for regional management and implementation of reforms in key sectors of the economy, relying on local initiatives. During development and improvement of regional policy it is important to learn the experience of other countries, especially of the European Union (EU). Regional policy in these countries is successful, and aimed at smoothing out regional disparities, development of depressed areas, and ensures a high level of competitiveness of their economies. It is necessary to mention that during a long period in Ukraine there was no systematic regulation for regional development that affects in slowing of complex socio-economic development and stability of the government, complications in conditions for strengthening position of Ukraine in the international economic cooperation slowing implementation of market reforms in the field, the emergence and worsening of many social, economic, environmental and other problems. The current situation on regional development can be characterized with the next features: - the issue of disparities within the regions was never accepted before like threat to national security. Bigger attention was given to the macro economical indices and their positive trends. Even after the introduction of the concept of depressed regions it was not offered adequate tools that would enable to gradually overcome. Artificial subsidizing these regions led to a new problem - the reluctance to work on their economic development. - the weak system of collection institutional data in central government executive organs and municipality councils as well as fast flowing of positions for managing authorities don’t give possibility to any of them to realize strategic programs and reach target goals. Since 2001, the Government of Ukraine has been rolling out a new approach to regional development policy intended to address the country’s pressing issue of disproportionate economic development in the regions. It is based on a decentralized system of local and regional self-government, which establishes a stronger role for sub-national authorities in reacting economic, social and environmental challenges. Over the past decade, Ukraine made efforts to shift the nature of relations, attitudes and behaviours between central, regional and local governments away from top-down, centrally planned, annually budgeted programming, towards more locally-driven development initiatives based on multiyear and multi-sourced funding. The Regional Contract instrument is perhaps the single most important innovation of the Law on Stimulating Regional Development. It is an agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers and individual oblast state administrations for cost-sharing of regional development initiatives and infrastructure. The Regional Contract institutionalizes the twin principles of transparency and equal partnership – between national and regional levels of government while providing a practical tool for transforming regional strategic plans into investment packages and concrete projects. (Regional development tools in Ukraine, manual/Volodymyr Vakulenko;