PM Mitsotakis: Technology to become the ‘Holy Grail’ in disaster prevention

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Tuesday attended the conference on “Promoting Innovation in the Response to Natural Disasters – Exchange of Good Practices: An Act of Civilization.”
The conference organized by JTI Hellas in collaboration with the Embassy of Japan in Greece is part of the “2024: Year of Culture and Tourism of Japan – Greece” and in this context, the non-profit organization “The JTI Foundation” announced a donation for the fire protection of the surrounding grove of Xanthi and the equipment of the Fire Service in the city.
In his speech, the Prime Minister referred to the importance of promoting innovation to deal with natural disasters, giving special importance to the event and the meetings after the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation. “I must point out that the Greek government is going to invest in the coming years over 2 billion euros, mainly European funds, to strengthen the civil protection infrastructure,” he said. He also focused on the early detection and alarm system that will be installed in the forest of Xanthi.
“We all know that the climate change is the harsh reality. We have experienced intense phenomena. Last summer was a very difficult summer for Greece, both in terms of the number of forest fires and their intensity. We have faced floods and it is critical that we work together and harness the best that technology has to offer in order to save lives, protect livelihoods and make our communities more resilient. Our two countries know what a natural disaster means. Of course, there is one natural disaster that can have the most devastating consequences of all. I am referring to earthquakes, where Japan’s know-how is so important that it almost pushes us to establish a better level of cooperation between Greece and Japan, in order to adopt these best practices and see how we can use the technology, hopefully in the future, for this which could be the “Holy Grail” in disaster prevention: early warning when it comes to earthquakes. I attach particular importance to this event and to the meetings that will take place after the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation. Our best scientists are involved, and I hope that we will establish a strong partnership between the Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection and the Japanese government, which will allow us to become even better in this critical area,” Mitsotakis said among others.