OECD to establish research center on population issues on Crete

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will establish a research center on Crete to analyze demographic and migration policies, issues related to the diaspora as well as individual challenges related to the labor market and the population, under an agreement signed with the government on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann signed a memorandum of understanding for the founding of the center on Tuesday, at a meeting at the Maximos Mansion in Athens.

The new thematic center for the study of populations will be supported by the OECD, the Municipality of Hania and the Delphi Economic Forum.

Mitsotakis said that a better place than Greece could not have been chosen for the study of populations as Greece received about one million people in 1922 and today is one of the EU member states dealing with the migration issue.

Referring to the latest OECD economic survey of Greece, the prime minister said that despite the fact that 2022 was a difficult year due to the energy crisis and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the conclusion of the report is noteworthy as it says that “during these troubled times, the Greek economy exceeded the expectations and the forecasts made by the organization and proved to be the positive surprise of Europe on many fronts.”

Cormann underlined that the Greek economy is on the right track and must remain so. The structural reforms of recent years have brought results as well as a significant drop in unemployment, he said. [AMNA]