ODESA – President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko appointed Maksym Stepanov as a new Head of the Odesa Regional Administration. Stepanov won the competition for occupying the post at the end of 2016.
“Today I have decided to appoint a person, who won the competition for occupying the post of the head of the Odesa Regional Administration, Maksym Stepanov,” Poroshenko said during the introduction of the new head of the Odesa Regional Administration to the region’s leaders in Odesa on Jan. 12 afternoon.
The president said he sets high hopes on Stepanov, especially in those areas where the previous management of the Odesa Regional Administration failed to achieve the results.
In particular, the president has called on a new head of the regional administration to promote business development in the region, creation of workplaces, ensure the fight against crime in cooperation with the Prosecutor’s Office, the Security Service and the police.
Poroshenko asked Stepanov to keep operating the center of administrative services opened by former Head of the administration Mikheil Saakashvili.
The president also asked the deputies, officials of various departments, entrepreneurs and security forces officers to help and support the new leadership of the Odesa Regional Administration.
In late December 2016, Stepanov, occupying the post of Director of state-run Ukraina Polygraph Combine printing and publishing plant, won the contest for the post of the head of the Odesa Regional Administration. Once the results had been announced on the air of the ‘First City’s’ Odesa TV channel, Stepanov said that he would start with the “restoration of manageability of the region.” Among the priorities in his work he called the development of the tourism potential of the region, the fight against crime, the development of the regional economy as a whole.
On Dec. 21 the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved the appointment of Stepanov as the head of the Odesa Regional Administration.
Stepanov has experience in a number of commercial structures, including in Naftogaz Ukrayiny, the State Tax Administration of Ukraine. From 2008 until 2010 he had been serving as the deputy head of the Odesa Regional Administration. Since 2011 he had been managing the state-run Ukraina Polygraph Combine printing and publishing plant which specializes in printing passports, driving licenses, excise stamps, etc.
As reported, on Nov. 7, 2016 Mikheil Saakashvili announced his resignation as head of the Odesa Regional Administration. He said that he was leaving his post because he was tired of constant deception and corruption, including from authorities in Kyiv. On Nov. 9 the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers authorized the dismissal of Saakashvili from the post of the head of Odesa Regional Administration.
In the evening on Nov. 9, Poroshenko dismissed Mikheil Saakashvili from his post and from the post of non-regular advisor to the president of Ukraine.
Since then the region had been governed by Deputy Head of the Odesa Regional Administration Solomia Bobrovska.
