As his government is getting set to shed 15,000 public servants over the next two years on the orders of international lenders putting up bailouts, Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said his administration will bring down the country’s record 27 percent unemployment rate by attracting foreign companies to hire Greeks without jobs.
“We have consolidated Greece’s position in Europe and now we are consolidating it on a global level,” Samaras told journalists after a meeting with Greek President Karolos Papoulias in Athens, adding that the government is working on investment-inducing measures to curb unemployment which he described as “the country’s biggest problem.” He didn’t say what they were or how he intended to get people back to work.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been hindered by Greece’s reputation for a cumbersome labyrinthine bureaucracy and corruption, with frequent requests for bribes in return for licenses, which has scared off many would-be investors.
Unemployment is particularly rough on the young, with a 64 percent rate for those under 25, which has resulted in many leaving the country in search of work and a better life elsewhere as the government continues to impose pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions. There are more than 1.3 million people without work and another 500,000 not being counted because their year-long benefits have expired.
Some analysts have predicted that the jobless rate could hit 30 percent while the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) said it expects it will take years for the rate to go below 20 percent. The austerity measures the Troika ordered have caused a deep recession, now in its sixth year, and closed more than 68,000 businesses, limiting job opportunities even further.
Samaras, the New Democracy Conservative leader oversees a coalition government that includes the PASOK Socialists and tiny Democratic Left (DIMAR) also informed Papoulias of his recent visits to China and Azerbaijan where opportunities for investment and privatization in Greece where investigated. “Greece is making a dynamic return to where it belongs,” Samaras said
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