Head of Zymne united community: Land is the community’s main resource

The main resource for the community is land. In fact, united communities can exercise full control of their lands within the populated areas, but beyond their boundaries communities’ power is limited. Within the framework of the project “Spokespersons of communities”, held at Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Viacheslav Katolyk, chairman of Zymne united territorial community, specified how communities can gain access to their main resource, and what else they need to develop. “We exercise full control of our land within the populated areas, and there is a minimum of problems, because we manage every square meter and understand what we should do and how. But lands outside our territory are within the competence of the StateGeoCadastre. We cannot change anything, because it is beyond our competence. We do need a law on transferring land outside of populated areas to community management, because collegial decisions taken by local self-government bodies will be much more effective than individual decisions of the StateGeoCadastre,” explained the community head.

The next step after obtaining managerial powers is spatial community planning. This will require significant financial costs. But Viacheslav Katolyk is sure the communities are ready for this. “This issue will be resolved promptly. The law clearly states that a community must have a detailed spatial planning project. Regardless of how much it costs, all communities will work out these documents efficiently and the problem will be solved,” he said.

The issue of electricity grids and other natural monopolies becomes pressing. This is the first thing an investor needs to do. “The procedures for connecting to the electricity grids are very difficult. If the investor is interested and wants to invest considerable financial resources, this is about not only our development but also payment for electricity to the regional power distribution company. That is why it is necessary to help the investors connect to the electricity grids as soon as possible so that they will build factories, etc.” noted the community head.

Zymne community develops medicine, reconstructs outpatient clinics and will soon have modern facilities with its own doctors. The head of the community is convinced that insurance medicine is the thing of the future. “The minimum package of services must be provided by the state, whereas insurance medicine will allow a person to choose a doctor who will provide him with better medical services,” he said.

Although the infrastructure subvention allowed the community to repair municipal roads, local roads are still to be repaired. “Local roads are in a bad condition. We appeal to the regional council because this is within the competence of the region. At the same time, if the distribution of excise taxes is introduced with corresponding contributions to local budgets for all the roads that are in the community, then we will also be able to repair the local roads,” noted the community head.