The institutional framework for the operation of marble quarries, the promotion of the Hellenic Marble brand, the education and training of industry personnel, the strengthening of the culture of health and safety at work and the coordination of corporate social responsibility actions are some of the fields of action of the Greek Marble Association of Macedonia-Thrace.
As Ioulia Haida, president of the Association, stressed to “Naftemporiki”, “the upward course of the sector in recent years has promoted consensus and cooperation. It has demonstrated significant and systematic work and is at a turning point in achieving long-term goals that will significantly support the industry.”
Haida added, “the will of the state is needed to give priority to solving the problems of the sector. For this to happen, the relevant agencies need to help find solutions to the problems and bureaucratic delays. For this reason, we had meetings with both the old and the new leadership of the Ministry of Environment & Energy in order to speed up the licensing process which lasts from 3-5 years due to the huge bureaucracy and regulatory issues concerning the legislative framework. Today we have conquered a small part of them, but we are now very close to achieving the majority of our long-standing requests for the institutional framework for the operation of quarries. We have prepared new legislative regulations in collaboration with a specialized legal office to be submitted to the Ministry with the initial positive opinion of its leadership.”
According to Haida, “an important goal of the continuous and consistent effort is the inclusion of the Greek Marble in the list of national products of the country.”
