know-how available to sectors such as infrastruc-
ture, technology, SMEs and energy. It will be rais-
ing funds from the public sector, investment
banks and international development organiza-
tions, as well as from private investors. It will
operate on the basis of purely financial criteria.
The second priority axis concerns Public Works
(road axes, Athens and Thessaloniki Metro,
extension of the Tram to Piraeus, rail projects, the
ports of Igoumenitsa and Lavrion, the Castelli air-
port, and promotion of 10 PPP waste manage-
ment projects).
The third priority axis is about the further promo-
tion of structural changes and reforms. More
specifically:
● The new Market Regulations Code, which
includes the extension of the sales and offers
periods and the optional opening of Greek
retail shops on Sundays, will be tabled to
Parliament in order to be implemented.
● By the end of June, and as part of the actions
for facilitating entrepreneurship, additional
measures will be taken in order to reduce by
50% the cost of setting up a business, as spec-
ified by the World Bank.
Moreover, a concerted effort is underway for
further simplifying licensing procedures as
regards the establishment and operation of
business parks.
● The OECD’s “Competition Assessment Toolkit”
is utilized for enhancing competition in four
sectors of the economy (tourism, food pro-
cessing, building materials and retail trade).
The OECD’s action plan for enhancing compe-
tition in these sectors, complete with the
corresponding effects on price determina-
tion, will be ready by the end of June
2013. Moreover, all necessary legislative
amendments for lifting disproportionate
regulatory restraints and introducing alter-
native measures will be adopted by
September 2013.
●The government has already started
working together with the World Bank in
order to enhance Greece’s competitive-
ness through reforms that will improve the
investment/business environment and the
country’s ranking in the Bank’s “Doing
Business Report”. Logistics development
features prominently in this joint effort.
●The National Export Strategy is further
developed, with the aim of drastically
reducing the trade deficit by 2014. The tar-
get for 2013 is to increase exports to 13%
of GDP, the highest percentage of the past
30-years.
●Apart from the effort to facilitate exports,
which is already underway, the National
Export Strategy rests on two more pillars:
expanding the export base through the
development of comprehensive sectoral
policies and promoting exports. The latter
includes restructuring, and establishing
the official cooperation among, the com-
petent state agencies, as well as creating
a national brand.
Such policies will start being implemented
in 2013, both in the food industry, and in
the new technologies sector, while the first
quarter of the year will see the launch of a
new NSRF round for enhancing the
SME’s international competitiveness.
Trade with Greece
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