Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Thursday reiterated his determination to combat bureaucracy, excessive legislation and outdated perceptions that have transformed public services into fief, operating as the source of corruption. Addressing an open discussion meeting between Regional Development and Competitiveness Minister Mihalis Chryssohoidis and Greek exporters.
The Premier made a surprise visit to the meeting and in his address he noted that exporters -despite bureaucracy hurdles- have managed to become what Greek enterpreunship should be -creative, bold and efficient- offering multiple benefits to the Greek economy and society.
“We are determined to establish clear and simple rules in the relation between businessmen and the state because we know that excessive legislation and complex framework are the source of corruption,” Papandreou said. He asked for the help of the business world to change perceptions throughout all levels of the society and pledged that the government will take action for a fair tax framework. “We respect the operation of each one of you and we believe that inspections should be transparent,” he noted.
Exporters asked the Prime Minister to take action to supporting young people in their business activities.
Earlier, Regional Development and Competitiveness Minister Mihalis Chryssohoidis had presented the four priorities of his policy towards boosting export activity, supporting innovation, liquidity and market inspection.
He said that a new development law would be put for consultation in the next two weeks and noted that a new law would include special measures to support export businesses, young businessmen and innovation. Chryssohoidis said he was determined to create a young businessmen movement in Greece. He announced that a draft legislation aimed at transforming TEMPME -a fund to supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises- into a Hellenic Business and Development Fund with the addition of 2.0 billion euros in capital from a Fourth Community Support Framework, was at its last stage of preparations and noted that the fund was expected to mobilize bank capital worth 3.0 billion euros.
Chryssohoidis said Greek banks were expected to offer written commitments to boost liquidity in domestic markets by using 30 pct of state guarantees offered by the state. He repeated his call to multinational enterprises operating in Greece to cut their prices, saying that there evidence that products were overprices by up to 30 pt in Greece compared with other European countries.
(source: ana-mpa)
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