Cyprus wants to boost rural jobs

Agricultural Development and Environment Minister Nicos Kouyialis said on Friday that maintaining current and creating new rural jobs should be the EU’s main goal.
Speaking at a conference in Tirolo, Austria, on “Rural areas have a future”, Kouyialis said that enhancing rural economy by way of developing EU rural regions should be a common goal. This, he added, will increase pressure on the way European agriculture issues are dealt with.
He said that employment constitutes the main element of a rural economy, stressing that the main goal should be to maintain and to create new jobs in rural areas for all; young people, older people, in both agriculture and other related sectors, such as manufacturing and services.
Kouyialis added that the European Fund on Rural Development is a basic tool through which the goals set can be achieved.
On the sidelines of the conference the Cypriot minister had separate meetings with his counterparts from Georgia, Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Bulgaria.