“This is the first time a government is looking at the Greek state as a private company”
Greece2.0 seeks to transform the economy. Does it go far enough?
Yanos Gramatidis,partner of Bahas,Gramatidis & Partners Law Firm, Greece, talks to JohnPsaropoulos of ALJAZEERA for Greece2.0, the Greek government’s master plan for economictransformation.
Theexcerpt of Mr. Gramatidis commentary is following:
A new beginning
Corporate lawyer Yanos Gramatidis agrees that small enterprises, which provide90 percent of employment, won’t feel the benefits of Greece 2.0 for at least a coupleof years. But the reset of the economy, he believes, will be profound afterthat, because Greece 2.0 is acting as a government-side accelerator topublic-private investments.
Forinstance, it will now provide the state-owned railway network funds to match a750-million-euro ($885m) private investment from Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane,the Italian rail operator that Gramatidis advises. “The entire national railwaysystem will be electrified, and trains will be equipped with a Wi-Fi signalthat will run through the rails,” he says. “Thegovernment is even interested in bringing hydrogen-powered trains.”
He says anew set of investment incentives is in the works, and a new law that willexpedite public procurements making the playing field “more fair fordevelopers”.
“This is the first time a government is looking atthe Greek state as a private company,” Gramatidis says. “I have never seen managers of state-owned enterprises and ministers workso hard in a new way – modern, innovative.”
Thefinancial executive says recent experience suggests conventional growth willprovide real relief this year. “The Greek economy grew at two to three percent ayear by itself without any ’emergency packages’ in 2017-2019 due to tourismpick-up, which flows quickly to the granular level – not just large hotels, butalso smaller Airbnb places, cafes et cetera – keeping the cheap youth easilyand quickly employed,” he says.
Afterthat, though, it will be the turn of the government’s master plan. If all goeswell, it should clear EU approval by the end of July, and advance paymentsshould come almost immediately.
You may read the full article here
Source: Al Jazeera [John Psaropoulos, 6 Apr. 2021]
0+
