A roundtable on the topic "Public Assessment of the Prospects for Socio-Economic Development of the Volyn Region in the All-Ukrainian Context" took place on June 26 in Lutsk. It was organized and conducted by specialists of the non-governmental analytical center "Institute of Reforms" with the support of the international Renaissance Foundation. \n \nRepresentatives of the Volyn Regional State Administration, local self-government bodies, public organizations dealing with economic issues, lecturers of Volyn higher education institutions, the deputy corps, and local entrepreneurs were invited to participate in the event. \n \nRepresentatives of the "Institute of Reforms" spoke about their organization and the results of individual studies in the context of Volyn realities and plans for further work. Oleksandr Oliinyk, the director of the Institute, in particular, reported that the work of the analytical center focuses on cooperation among three sectors: government, business, and non-governmental organizations in the economic sphere. The Institute pays significant attention to analyzing the investment situation in Ukraine as a whole and the investment environment of individual regions. For thorough research, individual regions were selected, which makes it possible to form a kind of investment portrait of the state as a whole. In cooperation with the executive authorities of the selected regions, the Institute identifies depressed territories, studies in detail the causes of negative investment characteristics, and works on developing specific recommendations for improving the situation. \n \nThere is no shortage of problems in the sphere of attracting and utilizing investments at present. Thus, the Institute of Reforms conducted a survey of civil servants regarding their awareness of investment topics. It turned out that none of the respondents expressed satisfaction with their level of awareness in this area. Thus, the Institute's specialists recognized the need for an active information campaign among government representatives. To this end, the analytical center organizes thematic seminars, roundtables, and publishes relevant methodological literature. \n \nPractically all participants of the roundtable recognized the existence of the problem of low efficiency in interaction between government and the public, in particular with non-governmental organizations. Today, the public potential is sufficiently high to influence the development of the region and the decisions of administrative structures, but the public often lacks organization and the ability to properly represent its own interests and needs. Therefore, in order to solve this problem, the Institute of Reforms proposes to form sectoral working groups from representatives of all interested social environments of the region. Working with the Institute's specialists, members of these working groups would be able to study the economic situation in the region more thoroughly, influence the formation of economic programs and budgets at various levels, thus implementing the interests of various social groups. For the effective work of such groups and the development of their conclusions regarding the economic development of regions, the Institute of Reforms will provide certain material, technical, and methodological support. Subsequently, these groups should present their conclusions and recommendations and cooperate with regional authorities for their implementation. Accordingly, the effect of such work will depend on the desire of all interested parties in the process to find vectors for joint efforts in favor of the development of their region. \n \nRepresentatives of the Volyn Regional State Administration, in particular its relevant subdivisions - the departments of economics and foreign economic relations, declared their openness to cooperation both with the Institute of Reforms and with local public organizations. A similar initiative was supported by the heads of the Regional Development Agency "Volyn" - Serhii Pavlenko and the Consortium of Intellectual Service "Leon-Analytic" Oleksandr Martyniuk, who were present at the roundtable. \n \nAs for the presented research results, for Volyn they looked not very optimistic. According to the results of a systematic analysis of many criteria, our region currently ranks 22nd in the investment rating of regions. According to the Institute's conclusions, Volyn ranks last in Ukraine in terms of the level of development of the financial sector. The region's positions also look unattractive in terms of the combined indicators "entrepreneurship and local government." In the dynamic rating, the region ranked 25th overall, demonstrating low development dynamics over the past year. Analysts of the Institute of Reforms are convinced that the region's potential does not correspond to the level of its realization, that is, a number of opportunities, including natural resources, border location, and others, are not being used to their full extent. The Institute of Reforms and the working groups created with its assistance should become another factor in improving the region's economic indicators, promoting investment in the region and its effective use.