Trade with Greece
36
the heads of five bilateral chambers.
Mr. Yanos
Gramatidis
, President of the American-Hellenic
Chamber of Commerce,
Mr.
Harris
Ikonomopoulos
, President of the British-
Hellenic Chamber of Commerce,
Mr. Martin
Knapp
, General Director and Member of the
Board of the German-Hellenic Chamber of
Commerce and Industry,
Mr. Christos Folias
,
President of the Arab-Hellenic Chamber of
Commerce & Development, and
Mr.
Constantine Yannidis
, President of the
Hellenic-Chinese Chamber.
All of them, though, believe that Greece is not
offering an attractive investment environment,
owing to various causes that should be dealt
with if we would like to see substantial inflows of
foreign direct investment that would revive the
Greek economy. Bureaucracy, a volatile tax
regime and a sluggish state apparatus are,
according to the Chambers’ heads, some of the
most important disincentives for foreign invest-
ment.
Yanos Gramatidis,
President of the
American-Hellenic
Chamber of Commerce
How foreign invest-
ment-friendly is the
environment currently
prevailing in Greece?
The current environment
in Greece may be friend-
ly for foreign investment as far as the govern-
ment’s intentions are concerned, but is not friend-
ly in terms of legislation and licensing. More
specifically, there is still no comprehensive zoning
plan; there are still unbelievably many overlap-
ping responsibilities that lead to delays and lack
of transparency; there are still too many laws;
there is still no stable, simple and appealing tax
regime; the actual operation of the country’s new
administrative structure is held up; the dispensa-
tion of justice is obstructed by prolonged delays;
