The Greek Minister of Economy, Development and Tourism, addressed the delegates (attendance exceeded 1100 participants) of the 17th Annual Capital Link Forum in New York via a televised message as follows:
“I am sorry for not being with you in New York, but the new agreement of last Friday with the institutions has to go through the Greek Parliament this week. Let me share with you the basic roadmap of this government for returning economy back to growth.
After last summer’s agreement with our international lenders, there are some major milestones that will put on track the Greek economy. The first milestone is the two successive agreements that we have fulfilled already, concerning the implementation of the program. The second milestone is the recapitalization of the banks, that has also been very successful and that provides financial stability for the Greek banking sector, which will be integrated into the European Banking System from January the 1st. The third milestone is the first review of the program to be completed by next February which will provide long term stability to the fiscal issues of the Greek economy. And the fourth milestone is the reprofiling of the Greek debt after 2020-2022, the long term Greek dept, which will remove any long term danger of a Grexit or any other similar threat.
The Greek government that came into power after this September’s elections has provided political stability in Greece and is working in order to sustain political stability in a region of high turbulence.
The major issue, after the completion of those milestones, is obviously the return to growth. The Greek economy during 2015, despite capital controls, performed quite well. Initial predictions after capital controls, were talking about 2.4-4% of recession rate. In reality, at the end of the year recession rates will be less than 1%, which indicates that there is a strong cyclical growth element in the Greek economy which will make certain that it will return to growth most likely in the second semester of next year.
This growth potential has to be strengthened. The government has been focusing on major initiatives so as to make sure that this growth is sustainable: There is a new investment grant legislation, including foreign direct investment to be in place by January the 1st. There is a new public procurement system, following the lines of the European Commission, that will provide a much more open and competitive system. There is an initiative for the establishment of a development fund that will mobilize European financial tools and direct resources to the much needed financing of SMEs in Greece.
There are also major initiatives in continuing the policies of opening up specific markets, professions, and facilitating the licensing process.
Taking into account all these initiatives, Greek economy may see next year as promising for its return to growth.
Last but not least, the great advantage of the Greek economy, except the obvious sectors such as shipping, tourism, areas of manufacturing, agrobusiness etc., is its human capital: one out of two young Greeks is a university graduate. In effect this is the greatest advantage of all and it’s up to us to mobilize all available resources to turn this economy into a sustainable growth path.”
