Trade with Greece
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nesses requires a National Action Plan, summed up
by the triptych: confidence, investment, exports.”
The aims of the Ministries
of Foreign Affairs and Economy
Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dimitris
Mardas, recently said in a speech that: “The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs has an extended net-
work of diplomatic authorities, which includes the
Economic and Commercial Affairs Offices, the
key task of which is to support and enhance the
export efforts of Greek enterprises. Among others,
our aim is to boost business extroversion, promote
Greece in international markets as a producer and
exporter of quality products and services, and
expand Greek business activity to new markets. In
2016, we are planning a series of business delega-
tions, and the dates have already been set in
regard to Jordan, Tunisia, India, Sweden, Serbia,
and South Korea, while further details are expected
in regard to Saudi Arabia, Kenya, Romania, Poland,
Belarus, Iran and SE Asia.”
Moreover, the Minister of Economy, Giorgos
Stathakis, recently referred to the four key points
“for building the export sector’s new relationship
with the new growth model.” According to Mr.
Stathakis, these are:
1) Boosting extroversion
The government has already formed an inter-
ministerial committee for promoting extroversion,
with clearly defined targets and a specific imple-
mentation schedule. These targets include:
The development of an electronic platform, based
on the Enterprise Greece extroversion agency,
with the aim of thoroughly recording the country’s
productive and potential exporting capacity, and
the comprehensive presentation of the tools cur-
rently available to the state for enhancing extro-
vert entrepreneurship, such as the upgrade of the
“agora” Internet portal of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the enhancement of economic diplomacy
structures and the simplification of the paperwork
required for carrying out export activities.
2) Development law
The Minister made a brief mention of statistical
data showing that in the past 18 years the Greek
state spent almost 12 billion euros in subsidies
under various development laws “by channelling
and allocating subsidies on the basis of clientelist
ties.” This, at least, is evidenced by the high con-
centration of subsidies. As he explained:
Under the 2004 law, 4% of investment plans
received 44% of the subsidies. Under the 2011
law, 5% of investment plans received 42% of the
subsidies, and 95% of that percentage represent-
ed low and low-to-medium technology projects.
Moreover, only two sectors, energy and tourism,
both with secure markets, represented 72% of
investment plans.
“Therefore, the previous development laws sim-
ply led to the reproduction of a distorted produc-
tive model” said the Minister, stressing that the
new development law will offer strong incentives
for investments based on sectoral and geograph-
ical criteria.
3) Development Fund
In 2014, 39.7% of the loan applications submitted
by Greek SMEs were rejected, when the corre-
sponding European average is only 16%. “The
main task of the Development Fund will be the
design, coordination, and management of financ-
ing tools for SMEs. Its contribution to the support
and design of the national growth strategy will be
