Greece is an ideal investment destination

INTERVIEW OF THE MINISTER OF DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT Mr. ADONIS GEORGIDES

From July, when he took over as Minister for Development and Investment, until today, Mr. Adonis Georgiades is working on a broad portfolio of different issues. From attracting investment to illicit trade and red loans. The fast pace of these issues and the positive response from international stakeholders allow him to be optimistic for the new year. “2020 will be a turning point for the Greek economy,” he stresses, noting that new investments will be launched within the year and
new jobs will be created.

What is your vision for the country’s development in the coming years?

Our vision is a new Greece that sends out a message of success. A message that we want to combine with the 200th anniversary of the Greek Revolution to show that 200 years ago, we took the big step towards national independence, 200 years later, Greece is a modern European country, with functioning institutions and a thriving economy.
A country that has left behind this terrible crisis that we have gone through and which, no doubt, to some extent has given us degrees of maturity.We want and we are working for a new Greece, which, through the success of businesses and the growth of GDP, will find a way to support all those who felt in previous years that they were left behind. We want business to succeed, so that we have more tools so that everyone can share in the success of the country. All of Greek society will move forward if we do our duty.

How will the development plan you will implement affect young people? The crisis that hit the country in recent years resulted in many young Greeks emigrating abroad. Are you planning actions for their return and, if so, how will you approach them to return to our country?

If we want our children to start returning from abroad, there is only one way, and that is to create well-paid jobs in Greece with prospects.
This is why I point out that attracting investment is a condition of national survival. In this direction, we are giving special attention to the R&D and IT sector because we believe that Greece has a comparative advantage as it has high quality human resources. It has extremely talented young scientists who have either left and we want them to return to the
country or in Greek universities and deserve to find a well-paid job that will bring them a bright future. Therefore, in order to make up for lost ground and to play a leading role in this sector, we are preparing the Innovation Centres in Athens and Thessaloniki (Thess INTEC) and the corresponding centre in Patras together with joint ventures from abroad, mainly from the United States of America. The investments of CISCO and Pfizer in Thessaloniki are in the same context.

During your time as Minister for Development & Investment, you have “unlocked” the long-awaited investment in Elliniko and you have also taken a number of actions to attract foreign direct investment. What kind of investments can we expect in 2020 and in which sectors of the economy?

These first four months in the Ministry of Development & Investment, we have prioritised achieving “quick wins” in strategic investments. With hard
effort, we managed to “unblock” from the cogs of bureaucracy investments of emblematic character such as Elliniko, Afandou, Kassiopi, Elounda and Kilada Hills. In this way, we have maximized the reach of the message that we as a Government have been sending out from day one to the international business community: that Greece is on a path of change to become one of the most investment-friendly countries in the world. The results are already visible. Investment interest in Greece has been revived. International investment houses, some of the largest in the world, are putting Greece on their radar – some for the first time ever. The headlines in the international press are extremely favourable reports about our country. The universal law of the market is confirmed: where the first investors go and win, many more follow. Our country has comparative advantages and because of the crisis, it presents great opportunities in many sectors of the economy. I mention, but not exclusively, tourism, real estate, industry, renewable energy, logistics, the silver economy, food.

The Ministry’s portfolio of responsibilities includes consumer protection. How do you plan to further strengthen citizens’ sense of security against unfair business practices?

From the first day at the Ministry of Development & Investment we have prioritised consumer protection as a high priority. On my instructions, the competent
General Secretariat for Trade & Commerce Consumer Protection, all complaints from citizens that have long remained in drawers regarding unfair practices and abusive behaviour of businesses of all activities, from banks to beauty centres. In the cases where infringements were found, the administrative sanctions were imposed. By way of example, I refer to the imposition of an administrative sanction of €110,000 on a bank for illegal and abusive withholding of amounts from payroll and pension accounts and €240,000 on an insurance company for unilateral modification of contract terms. In addition, during these four months, we have coordinated and carried out more than 3,000 checks across the country against counterfeiting, resulting in the seizure and destruction of thousands of counterfeit goods. You can be sure that we are doing what is necessary to implement the laws and ensure healthy competition conditions for the benefit of consumers and businesses, and we are demonstrating this in practice. To this end, in addition to the legislative initiative we are preparing for a better and faster management of consumer complaints, we are moving forward with e-consumer, an interactive application through which consumers can find out from their mobile phones or computers the prices of basic goods in supermarkets in their area.

What is your message to GR Traveler readers for the new year?

2020 will be a turning point for the Greek economy as the positive impact of the work we have done all these years will start to show in the real economy.
months to kick-start new investment and create new jobs. Already, the first reports of the World Bank, as announced after the adoption of the new development law “Invest in Greece”, put Greece in the first place in the speed of new business creation in the European Union. At the same time, as the US Ambassador Mr. Mr. Pyatt, the new law has been perceived by the international investment community as a major reform to improve the investment environment in Greece. This climate is reflected in the international press, which is already describing Greece as the ideal investment destination for 2020. This climate is reflected in the requests from investors who flood my office seeking information on how to implement investment projects in Greece. But because it is vitally important that Greek businesses, whatever their size, also invest, in 2020 we are giving particular attention to tackling the biggest problem, according to all the World Bank indicators, of the Greek economy today, the lack of liquidity. The creation by the Ministry of Development & Investments of the Development Bank, which will be launched from the beginning of 2020 and will constitute a serious development tool for financing and guaranteeing small and medium-sized enterprises and large projects, in combination with the Herakles programme that will clear the red loans of the Greek banking system, creates for the first time in the foreseeable future the possibility of a definitive exit of the financial sector from the crisis and thus the return of liquidity to the Greek economy.