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Trade with Greece
58
stop; because what is now at stake is the survival
and reliability of our country: a country that does
not consist of lifeless statistics, but of living enter-
prises, living workers, young people with aspira-
tions and visions, the elderly and the unde-
servedly suffering.
Unfortunately, today the target is not only those
who really are responsible for, or have a share in,
the dire situation Greece has gotten into. The tar-
get is everybody.
It would be unfair to allege that only one govern-
ment, or only one party, is responsible for the mis-
takes and omissions that led to this crisis.
Unfortunately, as a society we adopted a statist
philosophy that was hostile to private enterprise,
criminalizing even the pursuit of legitimate profits.
Entrepreneurship ended up being a byword for
greed and exploitation. It was treated as the usual
suspect for all societal problems.
Adopting a perverse interpretation of public inter-
est, we turned the State into both an entrepreneur
and the ultimate regulator of all kinds of econom-
ic activity, paving the way for corruption and clien-
telism.
We created a system that discourages creativity,
productivity and risk-taking. A system that always
found ways of punishing entrepreneurship:
through high taxation, red tape, state monopolies,
market regulation, inflexible labour regulations.
And, of course, we did not even try to instil an
entrepreneurial culture and spirit into younger
generations. Even the word “business” has been,
for many years, viewed as miasma in Greece's
educational system, let alone the effort to link
higher education and research with business
innovation and market needs. As a result, many
talented young people are discouraged from
engaging in productive entrepreneurship.
These deeply rooted mentalities are, to a great
extent, the cause of today's troubles. Because of
them, we built an untenable growth model, which
collapsed like a house of cards when the global
crisis broke out, three years ago.
The same mentalities continue to shape, to a
great extent, both the political rhetoric and the
political decisions taken in our country. And con-
tinue to lead us to an even greater impasse.
The ACCI does not in any way believe in the exis-
tence of magical and easy solutions. There are,
though, various solutions, which have their pros
and cons. We have to weigh these solutions, and
select the most appropriate.
Recently, an international consultancy released a
plan that makes a case for the privatization of
Greek assets, as a means of raising the funds
required for alleviating the country's public debt.
This plan contains both positive and negative ele-
ments. Nonetheless, we can improve it and adjust
it to our own needs, with one primary goal: to
drastically reduce our debt, and escape from the
Memorandum and our lenders' suffocating grip.
This plan provides for the transfer and sale of
state property to third parties, albeit with no actu-
al Greek involvement. We cannot accept that.
This plan must be drawn out and realized as it
really should. With the involvement of Greeks;
and, of course, all privatizations must occur at
real values.
This way Greece will be able to repay the largest
part of its public debt, putting, at the same time,
an end to our lenders' stifling presence in our
country.
If we accept, as a country and as a people, that
certain sacrifices are needed in order to over-
come the current crisis, sacrifices that will,
nonetheless, enable us embark on a new growth
course, and acknowledge that the current pre-
scription of the Troika is both unjust and ineffec-
tive, then the “Hellenization” of this plan can be
the basis for reaching a viable solution.
To this end, we propose:
The then Minister for Development, Competitiveness
and Shipping, Michalis Chrisochoidis