Ukraine keeps moving forward on developing regional Smart Specialisation Strategies
The Easter European country has seen how a significant number of its regions have started to develop Smart Specialisation strategies and how registration in the Smart Specialisation platform has increased dramatically in 2021. With the recent addition of the Kyiv, the number of regions progressing with Smart Specialisation strategy has reached 12 (out of 27 total).
In 2017, some of the Ukrainian regions started developing Smart Specialisation strategies on voluntary basis. With the formal introduction of S3 elements to the Ukrainian Regional development strategies for the period 2021-2027, the process will benefit from paving the way for an easier and more efficient connection between regional economic development and Smart Specialisation initiatives. Here is a list of the regions that have joined this year:
- 2021 June: Region of Donetsk joined the S3Platform.
- 2021 April: Region of Ternopil joined the S3Platform.
- 2021 April: Region of Luhansk joined the S3Platform.
- 2021 March: Region of Khmelnytskyi joined the S3Platform.
- 2021 March: Region of Lviv joined the S3Platform.
It is expected that more regions will follow this trend during the upcoming months and next year (2022) while currently active regions are set to complete the final steps of the strategy’s development process. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) has been proactively supporting the growth and expansion of regional Smart Specialisation since 2017.