Isn’t entrepreneurship a matter of mindsets,
cultures, isn’t it a matter of being an inquiring
spirit?
Of course it is a matter of mindsets. But we are
quite often using cultural arguments just to
explain what we are seeing. This is not always
correct. Fourty years ago, some people argued
that the Chinese will never progress, owing to
certain of their cultural features. More recently,
referring to India, some people claimed that the
Indians are always singing and dancing, so how
can they develop? And now, out of the blue, India
shows increased business activity and grows.
Therefore, I believe that, although culture mat-
ters, it does not remain unchanged, neither does
it carry the same weight. Mindsets may change,
even within the same generation. We have seen
many relevant examples.
Do you believe that in countries such as
Greece growth can start from new, especially
knowledge-based, sectors of the economy?
Yes, I believe that this is possible in all countries.
Let me tell you what happened in Singapore,
since I am based there and I have witnessed
developments in many sectors of the economy
during an extended time period. Today, Singapore
is in the vanguard of modern technology and
research. It is worth noting that it started as a very
poor country — in 1960 it was poorer than
Angola. They had no idea what they should do.
Back then, if you looked at Singapore’s position,
you would witness a chaos. But they created a
new institution, the Economic Growth Council.
And then people started thinking about what they
could do. They could help certain sectors grow
faster. They decided not to leave the market by
itself. They detected the needs of each separate
sector. In some cases they made mistakes. This
does not mean that there is a unique path, but,
overall Singapore turned to be a rather success-
ful country, as it rose above the underdevelop-
ment stage, and today its per capita income
exceeds that of the US.
So, why shouldn’t Greece follow the same path?
It has many assets that may provide a spring-
board for a new type of growth. The point is that
all this must be communicated to the public.
By the leaders…
Trade with Greece
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