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Anastasia Balezdrova 

The head of the European Commission Task Force for Greece, Horst Reichenbach, expressed his belief that Greece could improve its exports. Greece is in a good geographical position, it has many educated and well-qualified young people and specific know-how, he said, adding that structural reforms are also needed.

The first steps in improving competitiveness have already been taken. Reduction of labour costs has significantly contributed to this and the process should continue in order for competitiveness to further improve in coming years, Horst Reichenbach stressed at a conference entitled Exports: A Springboard for Development and a Way out of the Crisis, which was organized by Ethos media in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

He said Greece needed to promote its products better and to facilitate bureaucratic procedures to improve exports. He noted that regarding the first objective, Greece could learn from the experience of other European countries like the Netherlands. Since the beginning of the month, Dutch experts have been assisting their Greek colleagues in this direction and in promoting national branding. Regarding the second issue, a group of experts from Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Nations and the European Commission Task Force visited Greece in March to assess the situation today. According to Horst Reichenbach, the experts have found out that high cost and slow procedures are the main obstacles to the growth of Greek exports.

He announced that a seminar under the auspices of the United Nations would be held in Athens on 19-20 July to identify the priorities for reviving this sector of the economy.

"The budget recovery programme is essential but not sufficient. Therefore, we want some changes. But they, in turn, are not sufficient to regain competitiveness," said Deputy Minister of Development Notis Mitarakis.

He pointed out the need of carrying out deeper reforms and admitted that the public sector restricts the private one. "Greece has never attracted investment and we need to create a favourable business environment." Without presenting the government plan, which, as he stated, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will introduce during the three-day debate for the vote of confidence, Notis Mitarakis noted its outlines. "Our actions, in addition to the establishment of a simpler tax system and customs control, will be in three directions: First, increasing the number of companies and products; second, finding markets in emerging economies and creating a national brand and third, to facilitate bureaucratic procedures and support exports."

Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Kourkoulas also confirmed the will of the government to make the Greek economy more competitive and outarward looking. In his words, a boom in exports was reported last year, which reached 10.3% of GDP and revenue exceeded 22 billion euro for the first time.

"In 2011, the offices of economic and commercial affairs in the country's embassies abroad received and processed almost 12,000 applications from organizations and companies. This is an increase of 50% compared to 2010. Traditional industries are shrinking and therefore, it is necessary to rely on innovation," he said.

"Greek products should be sold in the markets of countries with economic growth," said Signe Ratso, Director of WTO Affairs. The participants in the conference were informed about 14 markets in Arab countries, Russia and Turkey.