Odesa risks being left without investment in cultural heritage preservation

The development of the draft City Targeted Program for the Preservation of Odesa's Cultural Heritage for 2025-2028 is under threat due to the inability of the city council departments to finalize the wording and those responsible for the areas of work.

This became known during a meeting of the Standing Committee on Territorial Development Planning, Urban Design, Architecture and Cultural Heritage Protection on June 27.

According to Ivan Liptuga, director of the Department of International Cooperation, Culture and Marketing, who is preparing the draft program, it is ready, but his department is not the only one responsible for implementing the activities envisaged by the project, and therefore it is still impossible to complete the final development.

"The fact is that the program, like the previous one, consists of three parts. Our department is responsible for one, the Department of Municipal Economy for the second, and the Department of Capital Construction for the third. Unfortunately, the departments of economics and finance constantly have comments on these two components. The last communication took place last week. Either the economy or finance was not satisfied with some points of the program, and we cannot influence it," he explained.

In addition, according to the new legislation, the program must undergo a public discussion procedure, which also takes time.

As noted by MP Volodymyr Kornienko during the commission meeting, such a delay could lead to Odesa being left without funding from the state budget for the preservation of cultural heritage sites and the opportunity to attract grant funds for this purpose.

"The Cabinet of Ministers is now demanding a three-year program from us. You are blaming us for technical problems with other departments. We can deal with them, but we need a draft program that we can approve and then make the necessary changes. The absence of such a program in a city where a quarter of the territory is under UNESCO protection may be incomprehensible even to foreign partners. For example, our international partners will say that there are funds for some activities, but we do not have a program and they will not be able to finance them. In September, we will be forming an investment portfolio, and we will not be able to form it without a program," the MP emphasized.

The commission members supported Volodymyr Korniienko and eventually decided to give the Department of International Cooperation, Culture, and Marketing a protocol instruction to prepare a draft program for consideration at the session scheduled for September.

Кирило Бойко