“Greece is in a virtuous circle for its economy”
“The referendum it was a pivotal moment for Greece because expectations turned out to be illusions and not realistic political alternatives.”
This was emphasized by the Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis, at an event of the think tank Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS) held yesterday in Brussels entitled: “The recovery of Greece, 10 years after the referendum on the euro”.
“Fiscal prudence today, after we have gone through this process, after we have completed the series of negotiations, the efforts, the first memorandum, the second memorandum, the third memorandum, is non-negotiable. We understand that the same mistake should not be repeated,” said the Minister.
“Greece is in a virtuous circle for its economy, with the main characteristics of fiscal prudence, reforms and the continuous development of the banking system after its full recovery”he added.
The minister specifically stated that the country has gone through almost 100 reforms in the last 6 years, pointing out that “there are still challenges to be addressed, such as productivity, demographics and attracting more investment”.
Mr. Pierrakakis referred, among other things, to the challenges facing the European Union, but also to the opportunities presented in the debate on the implementation of the Draghi Report, which calls on the member states to remove the obstacles between them and to simplify the regulations.
The Union of Savings and Investments is the central political and economic bet of Europe for the next decade, said the minister, characterizing the completion of the union as “the biggest project we can deliver at the European level”. The minister underlined that “institutional reform alone is not enough without a real cross-border culture that will allow the creation of European, and not national, champions”.
Mr. Pierrakakis brought as an example the Greek approach to 5G, describing how a smart spectrum auction can turn into a driver of growth for the entire technological ecosystem. As he said, “imagine if in an auction that is not of the order of 372 million euros – as happened in Greece – but of 5 billion euros as it can be at the European level, you take half of this money and leverage it through the European Investment Bank”. With such a tool, he added, Europe could invest simultaneously in application development and infrastructure development, creating a real lead instead of a late adaptation.
“Digitalization is not about technology, digitalization is about administration and better services to citizens”characteristically said Mr. Pierrakakis when asked about Greece’s experience with the digital reform.
“The essence of the digital transition is not in technology, but in management. Europe needs a new way of thinking that starts from the service to the citizen and not from the organizational boxes of the public administration”, said the minister. “States,” he added, “are not designed, they have emerged from accumulated decisions of different levels, but citizens are not interested in these internal structures. They just want a state that works, without unnecessary complexity to do the obvious.”