Today, at the All-Ukrainian Forum “Ukraine 30. Ecology”, Ruslan Strilets, Deputy Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine (CDTO), presented the name of a web portal containing all environmental information about the environment of Ukraine, as well as two new environmental-protection-related services.
“EcoSystem is a place of coexistence of the state, the public, and businesses on comfort, transparency, and honesty principles. When developing the platform, we set two ambitious goals — to create convenient online services for entrepreneurs and provide access to environmental information for society,” Ruslan Strilets said.
According to the Deputy Minister:
· the Ministry receives 10,000 requests for public information every year — this is more than 1 million paper pages of appeals and answers that are sent around the country;
· the Ministry and regional state administrations receive 75,000 appeals regarding environmental protection-related services;
· 55% of businesses receive such a service, while 45% of businesses have never had permits in the field of environmental protection. This is the information that the state lacks for analysis and effective work;
· obtaining one permit requires more than 4,300 hours of waiting, 6,000 UAH of indirect costs for entrepreneurs (for business trips, paper, printing, consulting).
The EcoSystem will allow improving these statistics.
“The digital EcoSystem is designed to directly deal with environmental problems in Ukraine. The registry data will allow the public and entrepreneurs to develop their environmental projects. Additionally, all entrepreneurs will be able to receive all online environment-related services. Thus, the EcoSystem creates effective interaction between the state, businesses, and the community,” Oleksii Dorohan, CEO of the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO) said.
Currently, 6 services are already available on the portal: statements on transboundary shipment of wastes, waste management licenses, felling licenses, certificates of timber origin, declarations on waste, water use permits.
In total, the Ministry plans to digitize 29 administrative services, which will be integrated with a single Diia public services portal.
Additionally, data from more than 60 registries will be opened, and this will allow every Ukrainian to monitor the environmental status, including water and air quality, pesticides, forest fires, etc., in real-time.
The EcoSystem was developed with the support of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, the USAID/UKAID Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services (TAPAS) project, and the Better Regulation Delivery Office.
Victor Smal, Deputy Chairman of the State Forest Resources Agency (CDTO), Maksym Shkilov, Head of the Department of Digital Transformation Coordination at the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Konstantin Taranets, Manager of the EY Climate Change and Sustainability Services Department in Ukraine, Danylo Molchanov, Deputy Chief of the USAID/UKAID
Transparency and Accountability in Public Administration and Services (TAPAS) international technical assistance project, and Oleksii Dorohan, CEO of the Better Regulation Delivery Office (BRDO), also participated in the presentation.