Today, on November 7, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Belgium to Ukraine Luc Jacobs and his wife visited Vinnitsa region with an official visit.

The diplomat took part in the celebration of the second anniversary of the move of the Donetsk National University by Vasyl Stus to Vinnytsia and met with leaders of the region and the city.

"The country is at war, the social and political situation is very difficult, but we, nevertheless, are moving forward. We are building a country,  we have done everything possible in order to raise the quality of the system of national defense and already feel the positive results of the reform of decentralization", - said Valeriy Koroviy, Head of Regional State Administration, opening the meeting.

According to his words, Vinnitsa region has the highest number of local governments from other regions of Ukraine, therefore, that is the most attention is attracted to it, when it comes to decentralization, in particular the budget.

"Today, local governments received three-four times more financial resources than it was before the budget decentralization. This year the centralized investment will be 2 billion UAH. Along with macroeconomic stabilization, it will have a positive impact on the development of the region - said Valeriy Koroviy. - According to our estimates, today more than 400 sites are working on repairing roads, schools, preschool educational establishments and a number of other facilities. "

At the same time, as Head of Vinnytsia Region noted, the Government transfers now much of the administrative authority to the regions, licensing and registration procedures. "We are forming centres for providing administrative services at the district level. Today, the bodies of regional local administrations stop to manage the process, they provide services. This is a completely new philosophy of local authorities ", - highlighted the Head of State Administration.

Describing the state of socio-economic development of Vinnytsia Region in terms of current challenges, the Head of the region noted the dynamic progress of the region, in particular the strong development of the agricultural sector. "This year, thanks to large investments in this sector and favourable conditions, we have a historic achievement in this area. Ukraine leads in all the basic positions of our region", - said Valeriy Koroviy. He also stressed that in recent years we managed to create a powerful competitive environment in the region, where the equal conditions for business "attract" the investment in the region.

Head of Regional State Administration also stressed the attention on the first positive results, which Ukraine feels from the implementation of the Association Agreement with the EU, and informed the diplomat about the development of enterprises with foreign capital, operating in the region.

Luc Jacobs, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Belgium in Ukraine, in his turn, stressed the need to enhance cooperation between Ukraine and Belgium.

"Our countries have a certain gap. It is not as big as it was before, but we still do not know much about each other. Previously, we were divided, but now I believe it is time to renew our relationship and to deepen it", - highlighted the Ambassador.

According to the words of diplomat, despite of the existing propaganda, the facts show that there is a Belgian business in Ukraine, it stayed here and is expanding. Therefore, first of all, said Luc Jacobs, we must create the conditions, under which the business will feel comfortable in Ukraine.

Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Kingdom of Belgium also positively estimated the work of rebuilding the roads, which is now active in the country, stressing the importance of quality infrastructure.

"It's nice to hear, and it is very important that the Association Agreement with the EU has already given the positive results. Under this agreement, we can strengthen not only the EU - Ukraine relations, but also Ukraine - Belgium ones" - highlighted the diplomat. Hence, he suggested considering the question about the opening a representative office in Brussels to the management of Vinnitsa region.