O ECD center to be created on Crete

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will meet with Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Mathias Cormann at 12:00 on Tuesday.

At their meeting, Cormann will present the regular OECD Economic Survey of Greece, which is expected to be live-streamed at 12:30 pm local time from government headquarters at Maximos Mansion, according to an OECD press statement. The latest survey “looks at the country’s recent performance and at how to sustain the recovery amid surging energy and food prices, raise incomes, and achieve the green economy transition,” it added. The meeting will be followed by joint statements.

Mitsotakis and Cormann are also expected to sign a memorandum of understanding for the founding of an OECD center on the island of Crete. The establishment of the center, which is an initiative of the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, aims to highlight and analyze demographic and immigration policies, issues related to the Diaspora, as well as addressing the individual challenges related to the labor market and the population.

The new thematic center of the OECD in Crete for Population will be actively supported by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Municipality of Chania and the Economic Forum of Delphi. Their cooperation was sealed with a memorandum of understanding signed on Monday evening, in a central hotel in Athens, by the Secretary General of the OECD, Matias Korman, the Mayor of Chania, Panagiotis Simandirakis, and the President of the Delphi Economic Forum, Symeon Tsomokos. In fact, within the framework of the memorandum, the OECD, the Economic Forum of Delphi and the Municipality of Chania announced the establishment of the International Crete Conference for Dialogue on Population (“International Crete Conference for Dialogue on Population”), which will be held annually based at the Center’s facilities in Crete, as well as a series of accompanying events for the individual issues concerning its priorities.

In his address during last night’s event, the OECD Secretary-General emphasized that the OECD Population Center in Crete will utilize and promote the Organization’s knowledge on population dynamics and its link to economic development. Further highlighting the importance of the Center, Matias Korman emphasized that it will serve as a hub for capacity building, learning and political dialogue.