Development plan for Thrace approved by party committee
A comprehensive plan for the economic, demographic, educational, technological and rural development of the northeastern region of Thrace has been drafted by a cross-party parliamentary committee.
The most important sector is education, as investment in this area is seen as the basis for the further development of the region, which has perennially lagged behind the rest of the country.
Thrace’s key problems in education are the infrastructure and buildings of secondary schools for the country’s Muslim minority in the mountains of Rodopi and in Xanthi.
The committee’s findings stressed the need to upgrade the quality of teaching and education at minority schools, as well as their connections with higher education institutions.
Moreover, with the aim of arresting a thinning population, the committee envisages housing subsidy programs in the municipalities of Didymoteicho and Orestiada of northern Evros, with the construction and sale of housing in the context of institutionalized and state-supported relocations from more densely populated areas, and the encouragement of low-interest loans.
In addition, it also foresee affirmative action in recruitment procedures in the public sector, for example in the police, border guard and forestry services.
