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education, and sports facilities. And newly created OTGs allocate these funds more effectively, as they have a better understanding of local needs. The rules of competition between OTGs for particular state subsidies also facilitates their development.
In general, state support for local development projects grew from 0.5 billion UAH (US $66 million) in 2014 to 20.8 billion UAH (US $770 million) in 2019.
The largest part of the State Fund was spent on regional development that finances various types of local projects on a competitive basis, as well as for two state programs: for the development of local sports facilities and local medical facilities for general practitioners.
Many examples of the implementation of state programs are impressive, especially taking into account how quickly they were implemented and completed.
In general, 640 of such new medical centers with facilities for general practitioners were built in Ukrainian villages in 2018-2020 thanks to the state program. Before, such centers were more than 50 years old and were located in old huts. 71% of them had no water and 75% no sewerage systems, according to a government report.
In general, about 400 such sports facilities were built in Ukrainian municipalities in 2017-2019 with about 60% of costs allocated from the special state program. Such sporting grounds that are just a norm for any municipality in developed countries were rare in Ukraine until recently. People used to play games on the village pastures or old Soviet sporting ground near schools.
Overall, 280 schools were reconstructed in Ukraine in 2019 with the support from the State Fund of Regional Development. The Fund also funds other regional development projects.
In 2019, UAH 14.7 billion (US$ 0.6 billion) was allocated in subsidies for the construction of local roads. Adding this state funding to budgets already implemented by local authorities, some municipalities managed to reconstruct or develop 70% of their local roads just in the last 3 years.
Baranivska OTG in Zhytomyr Oblast became one of the symbols of Ukrainian decentralization. It not only implemented all the mentioned infrastructural projects that became available with decentralization. It went the extra mile by turning its municipality into a brand and boosting local development.
The first step of the new OTG was to create the new emblem of the municipality in 2017. It included forests that cover 1⁄3 of its territory and also traditional flax, rye, and sheep. The emblem became prophetic. Soon after, Baranivka became famous in Ukraine as the biggest producer of organic milk that is also exported abroad.
Recently the OTG reached an agreement with a British investor to start cultivating flax once again so as to eventually launch a textile production, restoring the ancient tradition of creating flax-linen clothes.
Baranivka also develops touristic routes through its forests inhabited with unique species of deer. Finally, the “Youth cluster of organic business of
7​ UKRAINE Country Report​ September 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com