T
he Greek government is responding to
this situation with decisiveness and
strategic planning worthy of its place in
Europe, which is also giving its own answers for
the future.
The Greek government, acting responsibly and
under a comprehensive plan, has intervened on
various levels and on the basis of specific priori-
ties. It started by rescuing the country through the
provision of a special lending facility by the inter-
national system ―and no one in Greece is
thoughtless enough to overlook the fact that we
are fully and irreversibly integrated in this sys-
tem― as expressed by the IMF, the EU and the
ECB, in order to spare Greece from an immediate
and unfair “death” of obviously devastating con-
sequences. Then, it brought our international
credibility back to the appropriate levels, a main
prerequisite for restarting the Greek economy.
Furthermore, we consistently shunned deficit-
inducing policies and adopted a new, well-func-
tioning and realistic, growth model.
The main tools in this effort are:
•
the utilization of state property;
•
effectively fighting tax evasion;
•
improving the functioning of institutions and
simplifying legislation;
•
the abolishment of anachronistic obstacles in
attracting foreign investments;
•
the new investment incentives law, and the
establishment of a National Hellenic Fund of
Entrepreneurship and Development;
•
the opening of the so-called “closed” professions;
•
green investments and the exploitation of the
country’s rich Renewable Energy Sources;
•
enhancing competitiveness, and implementing
a national strategic plan for promoting extro-
Trade with Greece
16
Greece is facing a great challenge:
to breathe new life into its creative
forces. Persistent structural distor-
tions, along with failures in the
management of public affairs,
tipped the country into a simulta-
neous debt, deficit and reliability
crisis; and all this, within an envi-
ronment of global crisis.
Greece is on the right
track
By George Petalotis, Deputy Minister of Interior
& Government Spokesman
