The issue of the islands does not concern only Greece, but the whole Europe, Alternate Economy and Development Minister Alexis Charitsis said on Monday in a statement to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) during the 13th Regional Development Conference of South Aegean held in Rhodes.
Charitsis said that Special Development Programmes for North and South Aegean amounting to 102 million euros are underway. Specifically, more than 100 projects are carried out in the regions while additional interventions of 77 million euros are funded by other programmes run by the ministry.
“Because of their geographical location and their particular social and economic characteristics, the Aegean islands face increased challenges, which require special care from the side of the state. As a finance ministry we are implementing a comprehensive plan to support them, providing substantial funding and specialized technical support,” he underlined.
The Special Development Plans of the North and South Aegean, amounting to 102 million euros, are at the heart of this effort, he said.
The regional development conference that will be held on April 16-17 on the island of Rhodes. Aim of the Conference is to hold a decentralized dialogue with social and productive entities within the framework of the “National Development Strategy 2021”.
Its purpose is an in-depth exploration of production capacities in order to set qualitative and quantitative targets for the development perspective of the South Aegean as part of a coherent regional productive reconstruction project.
It is organized by the South Aegean Region and the Economy and Development Ministry.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras will reportedly attend the conference as well as 18 ministers and deputy ministers.
dear sirs in athens, brussels, and wherever else you sit thinking you rule the world:
We don’t want your ‘development’. we want yout to leave us alone!
we don’t want your tourists trampling all over the place, we don’t want your bureacrats telling us how to bake our bread or the shape of a banana or anything else!
we don’t want your ‘help’!
we want you to go away and leave us alone !!!!
we don’t need you, and that of course is what you simply cannot abide!