Monthly report for November 2005 - January 2006
	Key developments
	On 1- 5 November 2005 three representatives of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine had a working visit to France in order to study French experience of contracts for regional development. The participants spent two days in Nord Pas-de-Calais region in the North of France studying the experience of region's prefecture. The participants learned about the role of regional authorities in elaborating and launching of the "State - Region" Contract plan, as well as discussing the priorities and implementation mechanisms of the stated Contract.
	In the course of the visit the following issues have been discussed: regional policy of the Republic of France, key directions of the EU support for regional development, partnership and financial instruments of supporting regional and local development; system of selection of projects for the receipt of EU funding; participation of Nord region in elaboration and implementation of the "State - Region" Contract plan; control over the implementation of the planning contract between the state and the regions.
	On 16 - 21 January 2006 two representatives of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and Ukrainian expert Mr. Ihor Sanzharovsky visited Poland within the framework of the "Regional Development Agencies" component implementation. The purpose of the visit was to learn the experience of operation of Regional Development Agencies (RDA), as well as Polish experience in introducing regional contracts. During the visit the group visited the Polish Ministry for Regional Development, Polish National Bank for Development, Polish Agency for Development of Entrepreneurship, Radom municipality, Radom Center for Development of Entrepreneurship, Malopolska Regional Development Agency, Regional Development Agency of Lower Silesia and Development Agency of Entrepreneurship of Lower Silesia, Regional Development Agency of Upper Silesia and other organizations.
	The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine has published the Monitoring of Social and Economic Development of Regions for 2004. Printing of the report was funded by LARGIS II project.
	·In January 2006 Ms. Tetyana Korneyeva taken the place of Mr. Ihor Sanzharovsky as a LARGIS II Project Coordinator. Tetyana was in charge of implementation of this project from June to October 2005. Mr. Slava Gill commenced his work as financial and technical coordinator of LARGIS II. Slava worked on this position in the first LARGIS project as well. Mr. Kostyantyn Frolenko is a system administrator of LARGIS II. Our sincere thanks to Ihor Sanzharovsky for his good work with LARGIS. He will continue to work part-time as a project expert.
	LARGIS II project is being carried out simultaneously with the SuFTAR project, in the same office located at: Sofiyivska Str., 25, office 1, Kyiv, 01001.
	Major events from December 2005 to January 2006
	Regional contracts
	The Ministry of Economy has completed work on the elaboration of a 'typical contract' and this is now under consideration by the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry is working to finalize a procedure for negotiating regional contracts between the Cabinet of Ministers and Oblast Councils
	State Capital Investment Grants
	At the request of the Ministry of Economy it is planned to hold two days expert seminar for the representatives of the Ministry on 18 - 19 February 2006 on the criteria and procedures for evaluating capital project proposals from regions or municipalities. The seminar will be led by Polish experts Mr. Zbigniew Jedrzejewski and Mr. Jacek Kawala.
	Methodology for Defining and Ranking of Depressed Regions & Territories
	Ukrainian expert Mr. Markiyan Datsyshyn has elaborated the Draft Order for attributing to the territory the status of depressive territory under the Law of Ukraine "On Stimulation of Development of the Regions" in order to adequately define the territories to which the status of depressive is attributed.
	Key position is the rationale for using standardized values for evaluating the indicators - criteria for defining the depressive territory.
	In this Order it is suggested to refine the definition of the depressed territories as set out in the Law in a phased way and to monitor and adjust the results of applying the indicators. The need to do this is explained, for example, by the fact that according to the original indicators envisaged by the Law, the town of Yaremcha (one of the best-known recreation centers in the Carpathians) had a very good chance of obtaining the status of "depressed territory". In other words the indicators envisaged by the Law did not 'catch' the features of the local economy.
	Regional Development Agencies
	In December the Ukrainian expert Ms. Myroslava Lendel and Mr. Victor Tkachenko have prepared the comparative analysis of the role and mission of the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in EU member-states and Ukraine respectively with the purpose to present the results to the specialists of the Ministry of Economy. Ukrainian expert Mr. Ihor Sanzharovsky is currently fine-tuning some issues concerning the analysis of RDAs in Ukraine.
	Within his report on the "Analysis of Position of Agencies for Regional Development in Ukraine" author Mr. Victor Tkachenko has polled 19 organizations which in this or other way perform the functions of the regional development agencies and are the members of the National Association of Regional Development Agencies (NARDA). The poll was conducted through questionnaires as well as through interviews with officers of these agencies via telephone.
	The report prepared following the results of the research conducted contains information on history of creation of the first agencies and NARDA, analysis of normative and legal environment for creation and operation of RDA, analysis of organizational and legal forms and financial sources for the activity of the agencies, analysis of types of services (products) provided by the agencies and consumers of these services, analysis of forms of cooperation between RDAs and state authorities. The report also contains the conclusions and proposals regarding the state policy in building up institutional infrastructure for the regional development, SWOT-analysis of the RDAs' activity in Ukraine and annexes.
	On 1 - 5 February 2006 there is scheduled a study visit to Great Britain of the representatives of the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine and of Lviv Oblast State Administration with the purpose to examine the British experience of RDA activity.
	Duncan Leitch LARGIS II Director
	Tetyana Korneyeva LARGIS II Coordinator
	January 2006