This geographical position has always represent-
ed a great advantage and, at the same time, a
permanent threat for the Greek people, as the
Greek territory always played a crucial role in the
global balance of power.
Today, however, we are capable of exploiting
these advantages, given that, despite the crisis,
Greece is still in the hard core of Europe and,
above all, is still an oasis of security and stability
in these troubled times for our wider region.
And I think that this is a huge advantage that we
must utilise.
An advantage for the further growth of tourism,
which, despite the crisis, sets new records each
year. And is one of the main reasons why we are
exiting the crisis with positive growth rates.
An advantage for the further promotion of the
country’s role as a global hub of transit trade,
transportation, commerce, energy, networks, and
new technologies.
An advantage that has to be utilised in many
ways.
There is no doubt that this is the direction we
must turn to, gazing tomorrow, gazing the next
day.
We must design a new growth model, emphasis-
ing on Greece’s competitive advantages. And, of
course, fully utilising our natural resources and
human capital. And bearing in mind that the end
result should be reflected on society itself.
In specific ways, the most important of which
should be:
• to stabilise the economy and, moreover, to
recover, as soon as possible, the loss to GDP
that was caused by austerity;
• to drastically reduce unemployment, that is to
restore the jobs that were lost, by establishing
conditions of full employment;
• to end the
brain drain
and turn it into a
brain
gain
. In other words, to stem the continuous
outflow of educated and highly trained scien-
tists abroad. A phenomenon that deprives the
country of valuable human resources, damp-
ens its growth prospects, has serious reper-
cussions on population indices, and feeds on
itself;
• and finally, our aim should be to reduce social
and regional inequality. We should not only
look at social inequalities, but also at their geo-
graphical distribution. In this respect, Greece
was ranked at the bottom among European
countries, even before the crisis.
On the basis of such an understanding, and with
the final aim of getting society back to its feet, we
must work together with the productive forces,
and the local governments, because growth prior-
ities should be geographically distributed with fair-
ness. Therefore, we should work together in order
to set the main targets of a comprehensive strate-
gic plan.
Allow me to codify them:
• First, the shift of production towards high-
added-value and knowledge-intensive products
and services: through the enhancement of their
technological content, the incorporation of inno-
vative processes, and the utilisation of spe-
cialised human resources.
• Second, the enhancement of business extro-
version: in order to deal with one of the chronic
distortions of the country’s productive model,
i.e. its high trade deficit.
• Third, the enhancement of domestic productive
capacity – obviously within the scope of
European competition rules; contrary to a policy
that based economic growth on private con-
sumer demand.
• And, fourth, to enhance cooperation among
businesses, through the creation of internal
value chains and business clusters.
A strategy that turns the relatively small size of
Greek enterprises into an advantage, and allows
them to make a dynamic entry in international
markets.
*Extract from the speech delivered by Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras at the cabinet meeting of March 6,
2017
.
Trade with Greece
8
Greece has turned a page because, regardless of whether
some like it or not, the economy endured, the economy
recovered.
”
“
