Speech at the All-Member Meeting of the Association of Ukrainian Cities

Good afternoon.  It is a great pleasure to be here and congratulations on the Day of Local Self-Government in Ukraine. We are very pleased to be here.  We have been working with Association of Ukrainian Cities (AUC) for more than 14 years.  And for 14 years that we are working together we’ve seen this organization turned to the body that has a leading local self-government in Ukraine in promoting reforms at the national level. The Association and all of you as mayors and members of the city councils claim a leadership role in Ukraine’s movement towards economic, political and social reforms. As a representative of USAID in Ukraine, I am very pleased of the cooperation we see.  AUC, with its 500 members and its network of Regional Offices, remains an invaluable partner to USAID.   One of the reasons for this close partnership is that we at USAID recognize that local governments are catalysts for reforms and economic development; they stimulate economic growth and encourage civil society development throughout the country.   Over the last year I had an opportunity to travel to some of the cities in Ukraine, mainly in the South, and also in the East.  I have had frank conversations about the problems that local governments are facing.   There are many challenges facing you and similar ones you’ve talked to me about.  The major challenges of local government development mentioned included: - further fiscal decentralization; - assistance and transparency in distribution of centralized capital investments funds; - delineation of state-owned and municipal lands; and - also trying to reform of the communal sector.   We would like to continue working with you on these important problems, with AUC and also in number of projects, who actually have presented here.   There is much work yet to be done, but let me congratulate for many successes that you’ve had over the years.  Thank you.