Greece is an amazing country in South East Europe with unique natural beauty and resources, creative people, ideal climatic conditions, an important geopolitical position and of course a bright history that has affected humanity in multiple ways throughout time. These elements make the country an ideal place for different types of investment in many new innovative projects covering different business sectors such as agriculture, energy, natural food production, resorts, tourism and many more. The country must overcome public deficit problems very soon, take advantage of each of its strong points and turn into a “Combinatorial Investing Economy” connecting primary, secondary and tertiary sectors for a sustainable, in the long term, economy.

Economic Situation

For many years the country was applying a completely wrong economic model based on consumer and public spending. Additionally, the ineffective and counterproductive public sector, the intertwined unionism and the supply of money to non-productive state enterprises enlarged the problem leading the public sector to failure, dragging along the healthy part of entrepreneurship and ultimately undermining the national economy.

Today after six years of economic crisis the main figures of the Greek economy are as follows:

Greece’s economy shrank every year from 2008 onward until 2013, with a peak year-on-year decline of 8.1%.

The cumulative GDP decline has been 25 percent, from the high peak of 242.096 Euro in 2008 to 179.080 Euro during 2014.

Over 27% unemployment, with a figure even higher as regards unemployment in young people which nears 53%. Business Confidence in Greece decreased to 75.20 in August from 81.30 in July of 2015.

Business Confidence in Greece averaged 100.51 from 1985 until 2015, reaching an all-time high of 119.10 in July of 2000 and a record low of 74.80 in March of 2009 (Measure: current prices).

Ease of Doing Business in Greece improved to 61 in 2014 from 72 in 2013.Ease of Doing Business in Greece averaged 90.29 from 2008 until 2014, reaching an all-time high of 109 in 2009 and a record low of 61 in 2014.

Consumer Confidence in Greece decreased to -64.80 in August from -52.90 in July of 2015. Consumer Confidence in Greece averaged -35.96 from 1985 until 2015, reaching an all-time high of -3.20 in May of 1985 and a record low of -83.80 in October of 2011.

Greece’s gains in the 2015 Doing Business classification issued by the World Bank (58th out of 189 countries) were partially offset by a drop of two places in the 2016 edition.

The Greek economy lacks, regardless of the efforts of Greek officials, substantial investments from Greek sources, the European Union and other third countries

Unfortunately, destructive public administration and austere economic programs that the IMF, the EU and ECB forced the country to implement, have failed because they have been based on unrealistic views of how financial markets actually work, thus plunging the country into recession. What the country really needed was a growth plan not political experiments.

Beyond the current situation, Greece remains a country of great geopolitical importance, with political stability compared to the wider region. It is a cultural and commercial connection point between Asian, African and Middle Eastern countries, with an ideal climate, rich tradition and many natural resources. This makes Greece an ideal place for different types of investments.

Business Environment

Today the country has a scattered number of innovative companies, well educated potential young entrepreneurs and certainly a fair amount of further investment opportunities. But most of these lack capital because the environment for innovation and investments was in a bad shape before the economic crisis and still is despite initial reform efforts. Greece’s longstanding problem was the absolute absence of a national management and growth model in both the public and private sectors.

Greece is in the process of reforming and at this stage, as the country is building a New National Growth Model, this is the best period for investors to participate and take advantage of the opportunities arising. The country characteristically has sectors that present important competitive advantages offering vast business opportunities for public and private investments.

In order to reignite the engines of economic growth, Greece must create a more friendly investment environment to attract necessary capital for growth, proceed to immediate political decisions and apply the necessary institutional reforms, activating each separate production force and creating a combined portfolio of private and public investments to reinforce economic progress. 

Investors have a wide selection of alternatives in Greece for their financing needs in order to implement their projects. The Investment Incentives Law provides strong financial incentives to realize projects in numerous sectors throughout the country.

Greece is a “door” between the East and West between the EU and emerging regional markets. It is an excellent gateway -without any trade barriers- to more than 140 million consumers in Southeastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. The country is striving to use the crisis as an opportunity to boost its economy by applying a viable New Growth Model. Attracting foreign investment is considered a key to overcoming the crisis. Providing the best possible environment for foreign investment is viewed as a top priority with a view to attracting market-leading companies and dynamic entrepreneurs, thus creating associated jobs and stimulating the national economy.

McKinsey reports that what the country needs is a National Growth Model which could create the prerequisites for a sustainable future. This is indeed right but before this the country must swiftly redesign the state’s functionalities and law. Without institutional reforms that will support the country’s public and private sectors’ operations, no kind of plan will be sufficient enough to get the nation out of the deep recession cycle. A national restructuring plan of state mechanisms is necessary before any kind of National Growth Model.

The National Growth Model should build on well-balanced public and private investments and should take into account not only the services sector, which is already huge and cannot stand inside borders, but mostly the primary and secondary sectors which will allow the nation not only to increase exports but also to create new jobs and boost internal spending. Many are saying that the country cannot develop its industry sector. I believe this is completely wrong. If Greece starts working seriously on the primary sector and takes advantage of the country’s abundant natural resources it can easily open the door for the secondary sector and support the further extension of the services sector changing its role dramatically.

Mc Kinsey, Boston Consulting Group, PWC and other consulting firms have suggested some fields for healthy growth in the Greek economy such as: manufacturing of generic pharmaceuticals, aquaculture, alternative forms of tourism such as medical tourism, offering long term and elderly care, establishment of a regional cargo and logistics hub, waste management, creating a graduated classics education hub, specialized Greek food, international conference centers etc. But this is not exactly right. There are even greater potentialities.

How we are involved in the New Growth Model.

Our experience, that comes from working and studying in the real economy for many years in different industries in the Hellenic Market leads us to insisting that the key element for the nation’s socio-economic change still lies in the construction of a “Combined Business Framework” with the participation of each one of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors which will operate under a clear National Strategy and Goal. There were great examples of well-structured industries in the very near past that could still show Greece the way to change, even if due to wrong and outdated business models and government policies the country never managed to build a unique economic model.

Given that appropriate state structural reforms will proceed, the connection between production forces, science and investors under a well balanced Growth Model, the balance between private and public investments and the collaboration between public and private sector are all deemed highly important as these are the key points for an economic renaissance.

We support and promote any effort in this direction globally. We are inviting you to work with us on this target and participate in the development of what Mc Kinsey calls the “National Growth Model of Greece”.