Ten-year development plan debuts tomorrow
Development Minister Akis Tsochadzopoulos is due to present a 10-year national development plan in Thessaloniki tomorrow. The program, which will cover the period 2002 to 2010, will lay out the framework for companies, workers and social bodies, coupled with measures to boost their competitiveness. Some of the proposals will seek to improve workers’ knowledge, enabling them to better their response to the new environment. Tsochadzopoulos is expected to unveil specific measures for Thessaloniki, central Macedonia and northern Greece, underscoring the government’s focus on promoting regional development. The decade-long program is also expected to give equal importance to small and medium-sized enterprises and to the harnessing of information technology to improve the running of their businesses. The minister will present proposals that are linked to job creation, such as facilitating start-ups in the IT sector, and others on investments in energy, tourism, manufacturing and trade. He will also refer to reforms in the tax and social security systems and the new development law, underscoring the government’s measures to upgrade essential sectors. Telekom Srbija, set up in 1997, holds a monopoly on landlines in Serbia until 2004.
