New civil protection system to be ready in three years
Within the next three years, the Aspida (Shield) program, a fundamentally restructured civil protection system, will be fully operational, with the use of international funding sources, according to Deputy Minister of Civil Protection Nikos Hardalias.
“[The program] aspires to shield the country against every disaster, every danger, every threat,” he said, adding that it “was, from the first day of the new government, a central choice and declared goal of the prime minister himself.”
He made his comments on Friday at Zappeion Hall while addressing the Athens Investment Forum on “The Greek Economy in the Face of the Challenge of Sustainable Development,” about the handling of the coronavirus.
“We are creating the new civil protection system for our country,” he stressed, noting that newly established funding structures which allow for the more efficient utilization of available national, European and international resources are tools for the fulfillment of this goal.
Referring to the pandemic, he said it is a challenge which from the outset required the mobilization of all forces and the development of new tools and approaches in which the government had invested.
“We have managed to set an international example of successful pandemic management and remain, even while we are facing a second wave, one of the safest countries in the world and are now exporting know-how to other countries regarding the control systems we have implemented,” he said.
