The stable development of the rural areas and the improvement of the standard of living of their population were a main priority of the outgoing, Anastasiades’ government, Minister of the Interior, Nicos Nouris said on Saturday, addressing the General Assembly of the Union of Cyprus Communities, noting that, it contributed to the creation of the conditions that will keep residents in their villages, but will also attract city dwellers move to the countryside.
Addressing the members of the Union of Communities, the Minister said that, he did everything in his power to materialise their visions and demands, always keeping in mind the difficult economic situation and the extent of what the State could do.
Nouris said that the government has allocated €450 million for the three-year period 2023-2025 to support the countryside and revitalise mountain communities, through various actions such as development projects, housing schemes, financial assistance to residents of mountainous and remote areas, while they set in motion the implementation of a programme to allocate savings from the budget for additional projects in the countryside.
Never before has any other government in Cyprus given such support to the rural areas, he stressed.
He also stated that the total cost of the projects promoted for the period 2023-2025 in municipalities and communities throughout the country was “noteworthy” and will amount to €632 million. Of this, €325 million concern projects in urban areas, €236 million concerns rural areas and another €71 million peri-urban areas, “which shows the importance we attach to the development of the countryside, but also the balance we maintain in the government’s development budgets”.
Nouris also referred “to the very difficult and special role of our occupied communities”, which, as he said, have, among other things, the responsibility for preserving the memory, perspective and hope “for a return to our beloved villages, which are illegally held by Turkey, as a result of the barbaric invasion of 1974”.
Regarding the reform of the local government, the Minister said that it is “the biggest institutional change to the self-government map of the Republic of Cyprus” that creates a modern state of affairs, noting that, the new operating framework will be implemented with the local government elections which will be held in May 2024.
He said that the remaining period until then, should be fully utilised for the proper and timely preparation of the new entities and organisations that will be established from June 2024, whether they are called local clusters of services to the communities, or district self-government organisations, or new municipalities.
Source: Cyprus News Agency