Greece hopes to develop even closer ties with Japan, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a Facebook post on Sunday soon after his arrival in the country, where he is on an official visit, while stressing the importance of his visit.
"Good morning from Japan! It is an important visit to one of the largest economies in the world and one with which we hope to develop even closer relations," Mitsotakis said, with a reminder that Japanese institutional investors had stopped investing in Greek bonds during the years of the debt crisis, due to their loss of investment grade.
"Now that we are on the doorstep before regaining it, this visit is more than just timely," he added, noting that a great number of visits were planned during the visit.
The post also reviewed the prime minister's activities during the previous week.
Among them he mentioned actions to improve the access of elderly people in remote locations to mental health support, including support for those with Alzheimer's and dementia, and the significant increase in pensions for some 2.5 million pensioners, which he noted was the first time in 10 years that a majority of pensioners would see their pensions increase.
With respect to the economy, he welcomed the upgrade of Greece's credit rating by Fitch, noting that it was the 12th upgrade since 2019 and brought Greece on the verge of regaining an investment-grade rating after 13 years, which would lead to lower borrowing and debt servicing costs for the country.
Mitsotakis announced that a programme to subsidise rooftop photovoltaic installations by households, businesses and farmers was now in the final stages of implementation, with subsidies for 250,000 installations in total, while he also highlighted the news that the first manufacturing plant in the world to produce new-technology flexible and semi-transparent photovoltaic panels is to be located in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, as part of a major European programme.
The prime minister mentioned the upgrade of the LTFN nanotechnology laboratory at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki to a top-level research centre with a 30-million-euro budget via the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) and with the participation of the universities of Cambridge and Bordeaux, which would create new and high-quality jobs.
He concluded his message by referring to the linking of the Cyclades islands to the mainland electricity grid via an underwater cable, which will eliminate polluting power plants, and to his visit to Crete, where he had outlined the programme for developing and modernising the island's networks and infrastructure and increasing its environmentally protected areas.
