The implementation of the ‘Cyprus – Tomorrow’ plan is the legacy President Nicos Anastasiades’ government bequeaths to the people for a modern, European state, said the President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades. In a speech at the deliberations of the Cyprus Forum 2022, read on Thursday by Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides, President Anastasiades said the forum has set a goal for fruitful dialogue and to get the civil society mobilised.
In this framework, he added, it has created new prospects as regards policies and finding creative solutions to a number of important matters of broader public policy and challenges which concern the international community.
Referring to this year’s theme of the forum, inclusivity, President Anastasiades said it is a term that concentrates on the need to provide equal access and opportunities to all people, as well as eliminating any discrimination and intolerance.
He said this aim has become a vision and a high priority for his government, considering it an obligation to build for the present and to bequeath to future generations, a true rule of law and wellbeing, without exclusions.
A state, as he said, that secures and promotes human rights, fully responds to the demands of all its citizens and which is capable of actively assisting towards the people’s needs. We followed, the President went on, a holistic approach, adopting radical reforms and a series of national strategies and innovative actions.
As a result of the targeted policy that we have adopted and are implementing, he said, we have been able to achieve breakthroughs that concern gender equality, reconciling work and family life, ensuring equal access to education and health benefits, supporting the elderly and citizens with disabilities or developmental disorders.
The most important thing, he noted, is the implementation of the “Cyprus-tomorrow” Plan, through 56 reforms and 74 investment actions, and is the culmination of the work that has begun, “but also the legacy of the Government for a modern European State, to all citizens of Cyprus.”
He also referred to the efforts to reunify the island, noting that a solution remains a top priority, a solution that will secure the peaceful co-existence of the two communities, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and the respect of all religious groups on the island, Armenians, Maronites and Latins.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and occupied the island’s northern third.
Source: Cyprus News Agency