Monthly Report for March-April 2006
	The following are the key events of March-April 2006:
	State Strategy of Regional Development
	At the request of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine, Polish and Ukrainian experts of the Lviv Development Project (http://ldp.lviv.ua/uk/), funded by DFID, provided recommendations concerning some parts of diagnostic analysis of the document, in particular the monitoring indicators for each strategic goal. The Ministry is to prepare the finalized version of the Strategy by 15 May 2006.
	Regional Contracts
	The Ministry of Economy completed the Standard Form Contract and the Procedure of Contractual Principles Implementation in Relationships between the National Executive Authorities and the Local Self-Government Bodies and it submitted the both documents for approval to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.
	State Capital Investment Grants
	From 9 to 15 April 2006 a study visit to Krakow, Poland, was arranged for three specialists from the Division for Stimulation of Regions Development, which is a part of the Regional Policy Department of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine. The visit had a form of workshop held by two leading Polish experts Zbigniew Jedrzejewski and Jacek Kawala. The topic of the workshop was the procedures pertinent to the state grants for capital investment projects. The objective of the workshop was to assist the Ministry representatives in their adapting the European Union practices of government grants distribution for investment projects to the specific needs of Ukraine. The five-day workshop was aimed at preparation of the necessary documents for Ukraine, based on the written procedures disseminated in a two-day training seminar arranged for the representatives of the Ministry of Economy in Kyiv in February.
	The following issues were discussed more in-depth at the workshop:
	Legislative framework of grants from the government for investment projects;
	Procedures for preparation of the project request;
	Qualifications for participation in the selection process;
	Rules of cost sharing;
	Procedures for project submission, the format of request, and the terms of delivery;
	Procedures for review and approval of the projects - socio-economic, technical, environmental, and financial; and
	Financial and economic evaluation of the projects: analysis of the costs and the advantages, efficient costs analysis, and multiple-criteria analysis.
	Methodology for Defining and Ranking of Depressed Regions and Territories
	The Ministry of Economy has completed drafting of the Development Indicators and Monitoring Procedure for oblasts, rayons and cities aimed at more transparent and objective identification of depressed territories. The procedure has been submitted for approval to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. It was drafted in accordance with the laws of Ukraine in order to support implementation of the Law of Ukraine "On Stimulation of Regional Development" approved by the Verkhovna Rada on 8 September 2005.
	The document stipulates the indicators and the procedure for monitoring of socio-economic development of separate administrative and territorial units to be performed by the local executive authorities in order to identify depressed territories, and for preparation of the proposals to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine concerning granting of depressed territory status to oblasts, rayons and cities.
	LARGIS II expert Markiyan Dacyshyn was responsible for advising the Ministry in the preparation of the methodology.
	Regional Development Agencies
	On 14 April a working meeting was arranged involving the representatives of LARGIS II and the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine. The Project team was represented by Myroslava Lendel, Krzysztof Herbst, Duncan Leitch, and Tetyana Korneyeva. The Ministry of Economy was represented by Olena Nyzhnyk (Director of the Regional Development Department), Tetyana Kravets (Head of the Mid-Term an Long-Term Regional Development Planning Division), Valentyna Zharuk (Deputy Head of the Mid-Term and Long-Term Regional Development Planning Division), and other specialists of the department. The experts of the Project preseted the draft model of a regional development agency and discussed the main details of its finalized version with Ministry representatives.
	After further consultation with NARDA (the National Association of Regional Development Agencies) the final document will be submitted to the Ministry of Economy in May.
	As agreed with the Ministry of Economy and DFID, the LARGIS II Project is to be completed in the second half of May.
	At the completion seminar the representatives of Ministry will present to an audience of invited Ukrainian and international experts the package of new instruments for support of sustainable regional development in Ukraine, which were drafted for all the components of the Project during the period of its implementation.
	Duncan Leitch LARGIS II Director
	Tetyana Korneyeva LARGIS II Coordinator
	April 2006