The Mykolaiv Regional Council is planning to set up a new public enterprise to oversee the region’s digitalisation and security

Screenshot of a meeting of the committee on joint ownership of local communities in villages, towns and cities of the Mykolaiv region, housing and communal services, capital construction and architecture

In Mykolaiv region, there are plans to establish a new municipal institution, «Innovative Technologies and Networks», which will deal with issues of digitalisation and security.

A draft resolution to this effect has been prepared for consideration at a session of the Mykolaiv Regional Council.

At a meeting of the regional commission on housing and communal services, Dmytro Havryliak, head of the Department for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalisation at the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, noted that the new municipal enterprise’s activities would be focused on developing information systems, communication networks, cybersecurity and digital services in the region.

According to the draft resolution, the main tasks include the administration of regional IT systems, the development of a video surveillance network, the introduction of electronic document management, and the provision of secure internet connectivity for government bodies and municipal institutions. The organisation will also be involved in training and improving digital literacy for both officials and residents of the region, as well as providing technical support to communities.

Furthermore, the new municipal enterprise will provide technical support for the implementation of security programmes across the Mykolaiv region.

«Security-related issues for the Mykolaiv region will be added to the department’s remit. Two-thirds of the tasks to be carried out by this municipal enterprise will be security-related. This includes, in particular, the creation and modernisation of drones and the training of pilots to operate them,» noted Dmytro Havryliak.

The document states that the agency is to be funded from the regional budget. At the same time, it will be able to attract grants and international technical assistance.

Dmytro Havryliak, Head of the Department for Digital Development, Digital Transformation and Digitalisation at the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, explained that the staff who will be employed by the new municipal institution are currently already working at the «Mykolaiv Regional Guard» municipal enterprise.

According to him, the expenditure allocated in the 2026 budget for the regional guard is planned to be transferred to the newly established institution.

Dmytro Havryliak also noted that in the future, the institution is likely to provide paid services to local communities.

«We are spinning off this unit from the large enterprise ‘Mykolaiv Regional Municipal Guard’, which deals with a wide range of issues and tasks. The issue of digitalisation tends to get somewhat lost among the other matters there. We are simply transferring the budget from one entity to another. If we are talking about the institution’s future existence, it will most likely provide paid services to local communities. On the other hand, this will be within the funding originally allocated for the regional utility. This utility will also be funded from other sources permitted by law. In particular, this includes donor aid, which we are counting on to purchase equipment,» added Dmytro Havryliak.

In addition, councillors were also asked to approve the candidate for the head of the new municipal enterprise.

«We propose, under a simplified procedure, to appoint Andrii Tsiurysov as the head of this enterprise. In our view, given his education and experience, he will handle these matters well, which include both digitalisation and the protection of the region. He has experience in digitalisation, a military education and military experience,» noted Dmytro Havryliak.

The issue of establishing the enterprise and appointing its head will be considered at the session.

As is known, in 2022, the head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration, Vitalii Kim, ordered the creation of the «Regional Guard» — a volunteer force to maintain public order in the early days of the full-scale invasion.

By 2023, the Mykolaiv Regional Council had increased the authorised capital of the «Mykolaiv Regional Guard» to 23.2 million hryvnias, allocating these funds from the budget. A further 40 million hryvnias was allocated to the municipal enterprise from the Mykolaiv budget.

At the time, Vitalii Homerskyi, a deputy from the Servant of the People party and chair of the regional council’s budget committee, commenting on the decision to allocate funds from the regional budget, stated that the city should assume a greater share of the responsibility for financing the municipal enterprise «Mykolaiv Regional Guard».

Vitalii Kim, Head of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration, also responded to the city council deputies’ doubts regarding the appropriateness of funding the regional municipal guard from the city budget. He pointed out that the guard is involved in air defence and «works 90% of the time specifically to protect Mykolaiv».