Trade with Greece
85
I
t should be noted that, apart from the afore-
mentioned criterion of “starting a business”,
the said rankings also take into account
another nine criteria, i.e. dealing with construction
permits, getting electricity, registering property,
getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes,
trading across borders, enforcing contracts, and
resolving insolvency. Factoring in the above ten
individual criteria produces a certain ranking, i.e.
the
ease of doing business
, which, in Greece’s
case, has dramatically improved, since the coun-
try moved from the 89th place in 2013 to the 72nd
place in 2014.
It should also be added that Greece has also per-
formed rather well in regard to the criteria of pro-
tecting investors, rising from the 113th to the 80th
place, and trading across borders, rising from the
60th to the 52nd place.
According to the report, the main reason for this
year’s spectacular rise in the
starting a business
ranking was that “Greece made starting a busi-
ness easier by introducing a simpler form of limit-
ed liability company and abolishing the minimum
capital requirement for such companies” also
reducing the capital requirement for corporations
and introducing a regulation on pre-printed articles
of incorporation. Moreover, investor protection
was significantly strengthened by “introducing a
requirement for director approval of related-party
transactions”. Also, trading across borders was
made much easier by the implementation of “a
system allowing electronic submission of customs
declarations for exports”.
Commenting on the subject, the minister for
Development, Kostis Hatzidakis, referred to a
series of measures that have either been taken or
are scheduled to be implemented soon, and are
expected to lead to the further improvement of the
country’s rank in the next “Doing Business” report.
As, also, stated by Augusto Lopez-Claros, director
of Global Indicators and Analysis of the World
Bank Group, “Greece’s continued regulatory
reforms are laudable and
a further step in the
right direction
to improve the quality of the
investment climate”.
It is a well-known fact that for almost 6 years the
Greek economy has been going through an
unprecedented crisis, which, based on the latest
indications, seems to get close to its end, at least
as far as the reduction of the GDP is concerned,
since a moderate recovery, estimated at 0.6% of
GDP, is announced for the year 2014.
That said, during the same painful period Greece
tried, sometimes harder, sometimes less hard, to
promote a series of structural changes and
improvements, with the obvious, albeit not easily
achievable, aim of creating a new production pos-
sibilities curve and not merely moving along the
existing one, which would indicate a fixation with
an ineffective growth model, largely responsible
for the hardship of the past few years.
Undoubtedly, modernization, now matter how
impressive and attractive a venture it may seem at
the planning stage or, even more, when it is pre-
sented as an non-negotiable demand of “external
factors”, quite often proves much harder in prac-
tice. Reversing this insight, we can validly argue
that the realization of specific steps of progress
towards, for example, the reduction of red tape,
the simplification of procedures, and the reduction
of administrative costs for both the economy and
the businesses, is considered to be a substantial
contribution to, on one hand, alleviating the impact
of the crisis and, on the other hand, preparing the
exit from the crisis, with obviously beneficial eco-
nomic and social effects.
It is, therefore, self-evident that the international
community would finally recognize and reward this
progress, always on the basis of mutual
benefit.
