F
irst, we need political stability, something
that the Tsipras government cannot pro-
vide. Only a stable political environment
will make foreign and domestic investors serious-
ly consider placing their funds in Greece. That
said, SYRIZA’s stance while in opposition, making
all kinds of threats to potential investors, obviously
led to the opposite result.
Second, we need to move on from paying lip
service to the need for investment to actually
implementing whatever has been agreed upon.
The SYRIZA-ANEL government has agreed to all
the things it considered anathema prior to taking
over the helm of the country: the concession of
Greece’s ports, TRAINOSE, the site of the old air-
port at Ellinikon, the regional airports. In order,
however, for these large-scale investments to be
made and generate thousands of new jobs, we
need to take effective measures towards reducing
red tape, an issue that the government refuses to
attend to. For example, according to the World
Bank, Greece has the fourth slower justice sys-
tem in the world. Slower even than Afghanistan’s.
Greek courts take an average of 1,580 days to
reach a final ruling in a case, discouraging any-
one who considers investing in our country. Nea
Demokratia has presented its plan for the estab-
lishment of special courts to handle cases pertain-
ing to economic and investment issues, as well as
for the extension of court hearings till 5 p.m.
And since the major objective is to reduce unem-
ployment, the government boasts that the
Eurogroup’s commitment to approve a 3 billion
euro programme for the creation of 100,000 jobs
is a great victory. Nonetheless, this same govern-
ment is dragging its feet when it comes to the
completion of the agreement regarding the
Ellinikon project, which will offer work to 70,000
Greeks when fully underway.
Meanwhile, the adverse economic climate that
prevailed in January 2017 as a result of the gov-
ernment’s failure to conclude the second evalua-
tion of the third adjustment programme in due
time, created the conditions for layoffs to hit a 16-
year high: 29,817 people lost their jobs. At the
same time, the government continues to use the
Trade with Greece
26
In Greece, all political forces must agree on
certain key points: Growth requires investment.
And there can’t be employment without
businesses, nor businesses without employees.
In order to make this happen, certain conditions
have to be met.
The growth challenge
By Dora Bakoyannis, MP, Coordinator for Economy
and Development, Nea Demokratia
