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Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-04-15Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] PM Karamanlis: Gov't implementing National Strategy of Regional DevelopmentPrime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Saturday chaired a meeting at the Macedonia-Thrace Ministry, where he noted that the government was implementing a National Strategy of Regional Development. At the close of the meeting, Karamanlis said:"With the Macedonia-Thrace Ministry leadership we examined today the course of implementation of the government's work in northern Greece. The citizens of Macedonia and Thrace know very well the situation which we received two years ago. The problems which were created and accumulated, because of the then government's conception of the existence of 'two Greece'."He said "this conception led the governments of yesterday to options which in practice proved catastrophic and led to the explosion of regional inequalities, to the withering of the Greek regions." The prime minister added:"Our conception is different. Our conviction and criterion of action is that the road for a really strong Greece of competitive development, of social progress, of collective and individual prosperity, passes through strong regions. From the first moment, we set as our main policy the regions and their people. We are implementing a National Strategy of Regional Development. A strategy, which, regarding northern Greece, is being established on the basis of the new, optimistic prospects which are being shaped for all the northern Greek area by the cosmogenic changes taking place in our broader neighbourhood: the course of democratisation of the neighbouring countries, their European orientation, and mainly the next European enlargement, with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the European Union. Macedonia and Thrace, from peripheral and distant regions of Greece, are becoming a geopolitical and economic centre of the broader region. To meet this great challenge, we worked and are working with vision and systematic work. Northern Greece has already entered the orbit of the future." Karamanlis noted that the Macedonia-Thrace Ministry "has acquired a new organisational structure, so as to better meet the upgrading of our country's international role, in the development of all the regions of northern Greece, to the better service of the citizen." The prime minister said that "with these exact objectives, under the coordinated supervision of the Macedonia-Thrace Ministry, a Strategic Plan for the Debvelopment of Macedonia-Thrace, for the 2007-2013 period, has been set up. A Plan of prospects which determines as pillars of the new development impetus for northern Greece, Technology, Innovation and Competitiveness." Earlier in the day at the Macedonia-Thrace Ministry, Premier Karamanlis met with a delegation of the association of workers of Thessaloniki-based Phosphoric Fertilisers. The president of the association, George Michaelidis, called on the prime minister not to allow the closure of the Phosphoric Fertilisers factory, after the proposal submitted by the workers' side, which, as Michaelidis said, "secures viable and profitable, the refunctioning of the factory." "The prime minister guaranteed to us that the factory in Thessaloniki will not close, at the moment when the proposal exists which guarantees the viability of the factory," Michaelidis said after the meeting. Present at the meeting were Employment and Social Protection Minister Savvas Tsitouridis, Macedonia-Thrace Minister George Kalantzis, as well as the president of the Thessaloniki Labour Centre, Nikos Yiannopoulos. Later in the day, Karamanlis, accompanied by Thessaloniki Mayor Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, visited the site where Thessaloniki's new Town Hall will be built. On Sunday, the prime minister will meet the Prefect of Thessaloniki and later meet with the Culture Ministers of Southeast Europe. ANA-MPA Copyright © 2004-2005 All rights reserved. [02] Papandreou tours PeloponneseMain opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) leader George Papandreou is conducting this weekend a tour of Ilia prefecture in the western Peloponnese. He will speak on Saturday evening at a political event at Dikastirion Square, at Pyrgos. On Sunday, the PASOK leader will vist the Community of Havari of Amaliada Muncipality, where he will meet and talk with citizens.ANA-MPA Copyright © 2004-2005 All rights reserved. [03] Papariga on visit to N. Korea, ChinaCommunist Party of Greece (KKE) General Secretary Aleka Papariga has departed for successive visits to North Korea and the People's Republic of China, at the head of a delegation of KKE central committee members. The KKE delegation will be in N. Korea from Saturday until April 19, and in China from April 19 until April 25, while the visits are being carried out in response to official invitations sent by the Labour Party of N. Korea and the Communist Party of China.During the visits, the KKE delegation is scheduled to meet with local party and government officials, research institutes and big organisations. It will also visit industrial and agricultural enterprises, as well as businesses in China's special economic development zones. A KKE announcement said that the aims of the visits to the two countries were to become acquainted with the latest developments there and exchange views on theoretical, economic and other problems of concern to the international communist and labour movements. The KKE delegation is due to return to Greece on April 26. ANA-MPA Copyright © 2004-2005 All rights reserved. [04] Garbage collectors suspend strikeThe local government workers' union, POE-OTA, at dawn on Saturday suspended its nationwide garbage strike, which lasted for ten days. The POE-OTA board reached its decision at about 3 a.m. during a marathon meeting. It is estimated that about 40,000 tons of garbage have accumulated in the streets of Athens. It will take at least three days of intensive work to clear the streets from the garbage.The decision was reached despite the fact that an earlier meeting between the union and the general secretary of the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralisation Ministry was fruitless. ANA-MPA Copyright © 2004-2005 All rights reserved. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |