Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Mr Oleksii Reznikov, presented the finalised draft of the Ukraine government’s “Strategy for Economic Development of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions until 2030”. The fifth edition of the STG Policy Dialogue on Donbas’ Future gathered decision-makers and experts from the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, the United Nationals and the OSCE, as well as high-level Ukrainian policy influencers from the public and private sectors to discuss the reform plans.
The strategy foresees the designation of priority development territories, the creation of a Consortium Trust Fund, a boost of the real sector economy with special attention to high-tech industries and innovation, the re-construction of infrastructure and of the local labour market. Spill-over effects are intended to pave the way for a future re-integration of the temporarily occupied territories.
The experts present saw the new US administration's emphasis on diplomacy as a political opening for the Ukrainian government to relaunch the political process to resolve the Donbas conflict together with its European partners. In view of the Strategy implementation, they warned of a dispersion of competences on too many government levels, and called for a strengthening of the weak judicial system, e.g. through the installation of a Legal Ombudsman.
A legislative package will shortly be introduced in the Ukrainian parliament. First projects shall start early in 2022. The entire discussion is summarised in the new STG Policy Brief.
The STG Policy Dialogue series on Donbas’ Future, organised with the participation of the Office of the OSCE Special Representative in Ukraine, started in 2018. “This Policy Dialogue has provided an important track 1,5-diplomacy channel to discuss Donbas’ economic future”, say the conveners, STG part-time Professor Luigi Narbone and Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Ukraine Remi Duflot. “It provided relevant stakeholder a protected and trust-building environment and has generated valuable input for the finalisation of the Strategy.”
STG Executive Director, Fabrizio Tassinari, commanded the conveners’ efforts and stressed that the Donbas conflict was “a test for and a case study of multilateral or polycentric governance”, he added.
More information on the previous editions of the Policy Dialogue can be found here.