Mitsotakis: 'The government will continue to support innovation that creates jobs and protects the environment'

Attending the foundation-laying ceremony for a carbon capture and storage facility at the AGET-Heracles plant in Milaki, Evia on Thursday, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hailed it as "a project of strategic importance, which is made possible through a combination of private funds from the mother company and significant European financing."
"Once this complex investment is completed, these facilities will no longer emit carbon dioxide," Mitsotakis added, while stressing that the government will continue to support innovation that creates jobs while simultaneously protecting the environment.
The prime minister noted that this was a wager for significant investments in the direction of producing 'green' materials and supporting "green growth that respects the environment and quality of life."
"We are talking of an investment of almost 400 million euros," the Greek premier added, pointing out that such investments "need support through subsidies in order to be viable and Greece is at the forefront in persuading European institutions so that they have a right to such financing."
He also pointed out that the project will generate 1,000 new jobs during the construction phase and 100 jobs while in operation.
"This new technology is a condition for survival that will allow the cement industry to negotiate the period of new challenges. The specifications must adjust to the climate crisis. The future prospects are extremely favourable for such companies," Mitsotakis said.
He pointed out that the mother company would not have invested such a large sum unless it felt safe, saying that this was the best proof and an acknowledgement in practice of the great progress Greece's economy has made in the last six years.
The prime minister concluded his speech by referring to the anniversary of the death, in 2017, of his late father and former premier Constantine Mitsotakis, saying that he had also contributed to the event by taking the first step for the privatisation of the then state-owned cement firm Heracles.