Dear Rectors and Vice-Rectors, dear representatives of International Engineering Societies, dear President of SEFI, dear Participants, dear students
It is with a great pleasure that I am here today in the Opening Session of the40th Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education, which takes place in Thessaloniki, under the auspices of the Faculty of Engineering of the Aristotle University, even more so, since I graduated as an Electrical Engineer from this Faculty a long time ago, of course.
Looking at the Conference Programme, I have been impressed by the variety of subjects that are covered. This shows that, today, Engineering Faculties do not restrict themselves to the essentials of their scientific field but also expand their research activity into fields closely related to the place of Engineers in the society and to the effects of societal developments in Engineering Education.
I was glad to read in the informative material of your Conference that SEFI has set a number of priorities closely related to Growth. A synonym of Growth is Development and the General Secretariat of Public Works, that I lead, belongs to the Ministry of Development.
I agree with you, that Development is the only way out of the difficult times we are going through and I think that future engineers, our young people-your students, must be fully equipped in order to face the challenges of the future.
To realize this, Governments and Academic Institutions must work closely together, setting up short and long term priorities and goals in order to face the Challenge of 2020.
I wish you a fruit ful and successful Conference

Thank you

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