Statements by the General Secretary of AKEL A.Kyprianou after visiting the Deputy Ministry for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy
18th May 2021, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
AK: We had a very fruitful discussion about an issue which we attach great importance to. It is a fact that Cyprus lags behind in research, innovation and digital technology. I believe that the Deputy Ministry can give a huge boost to important sectors of the Cyprus economy which in turn will help society in general and the local economy to move forward.
These are issues on which I believe that there should be cooperation between all political parties with the Deputy Ministry so that each of us with our views and proposals can contribute to moving forward.
I believe that to date the Deputy Ministry has played an important role. We had problems with the vaccination portal. I want to believe that they are now a thing of the past.
I want to remind you that over the past few days we have been criticized by the ruling party that we are engaging in destructive opposition. I want to recall that this Deputy Ministry was set up after a proposal submitted by AKEL. I also want to remind you that AKEL’s role was crucial in the operation of the National Health Scheme. I don’t need to say anything more in response to DISY.
Q: Regarding education issues…Do you believe that the state has the means and infrastructure, but also the staff to teach children?
AK: This is precisely what we discussed with the Minister and we have stated that as AKEL, in our view, progress must be made in this direction which of course cannot be done without the elaboration of a long-term plan and channeling of significant investment. We have discussed that at the moment education abroad is done with interactive whiteboards or interactive televisions. For education to be done in this way in Cyprus, teachers themselves must first and foremost be trained and then there needs to be investment for the creation of the necessary infrastructure in schools. We discussed this issue with the Deputy Ministry. This has to do with the Government’s priorities. AKEL believe that emphasis must be given in this direction.
Your comments about the government’s pre-election announcements…
AK: The first thing I want to say is that this is rehashed food in the sense that these announcements have been made in the past by the Finance Minister. For sure, the total amount has been calculated in an arbitrary way. I mean that funds have been included which do not concern the Recovery and Resilience Fund.
As for the fund itself, we are talking about 1.2 billion euros. It will come from an increase in the contributions of member states. From there onwards, Cyprus will get 1.8 billion from the EU social cohesion fund that would have been granted anyway and the government has estimated that it will get 1.4 billion euros from investments that no one knows if this money will come to Cyprus.
The second thing I’d like to say is that these pre-election announcements by the President are not part of some overall development plan, of a different developmental plan for the local economy. Of course most important of all is that we have heard a lot of “I pledge…” from Mr. Anastasiades. He made numerous such announcements in 2012 and the result was that his pledges ended up being the shortest joke in Cypriot society. I hope and wish this time that the pre-election announcements made 10 days before the elections won’t not prove to be just as ridiculous.
Q: There is a plan and it is necessary. The EU requested it. The Minister said that it wasn’t possible to wait after the elections.
AK: This plan began last January and the parties submitted their own proposals. From there onwards, some meetings of the relevant Ministry were held with the political parties. I don’t hide from you the fact that we are annoyed because it is now obvious that the government held the meetings just to say that it had entered into a dialogue with political parties. The government didn’t take into account anything of what the political parties had proposed. I am adamant that this is purely a pre-election announcement.
We will wait to see what will be implemented in practice, because I repeat we heard a lot of pledges that have become a joke. I hope and wish we won’t have the same joke again.
