During the closing session on the future of the border region in the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace organised at the Delphi Economic Forum, MP for New Democracy in Rodopi Evripidis Stylianidis demanded that the government should take concrete actions for the development of the region, not just words.
Speaking at the session, which was also attended by the President of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Christodoulos Topsidis, Stylianidis stated that there is a lack of inter-ministerial coordination in projects and actions for the development of the region. Stylianidis expressed the problems faced by the enterprises in the sector and in the region due to the increase in production costs, and said that the region is also experiencing a serious loss in demographic terms compared to the south of the coun-try due to the high unemployment and the decline in living standards in the region.
Intervening in the same session, President of the Region Topsidis indicated that demographic prob-lems are one of the biggest challenges facing the region and emphasised that development can only be possible in a planned manner and with cooperation.
“What Stylianidis, MP for our region, said at the Delphi Economic Forum is very true. Indeed, as we have been saying for years, our region is very backward in terms of economic development and devel-opment level. Eastern Macedonia and Thrace ranks third from the bottom among the most backward regions in Greece. According to the data announced in February, Xanthi ranks last and Rodopi third from the bottom in terms of national income per capita. It is very important that the MP of our region, despite being an MP of the ruling party, criticised the government at the economic forum and said that concrete actions should be taken, not mere words. As our MP and President of the Region indicated it, the underdevelopment of our region leads to a demographic decline in the population of our region and migration. Western Thrace Turks also migrate to Germany and the Netherlands for seasonal jobs, but this migration, which is thought to be temporary, turns into permanent migration when they take their families with them. In face of this alarming situation in our region, the government should pre-pare an urgent action plan and take steps with concrete projects. One of the best examples of rural de-velopment is the Autonomous Region of South Tyrol in Italy. This region, which is similar to the geo-graphical structure of our region, has realised a marvellous rural development both in agriculture and tourism. Our government can take South Tyrol as a model’’, said Halit Habip Oğlu, President of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe (ABTTF).
*Image: www.anadoluimages.com
