Speaking at the General Board meeting of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) yesterday, Greek Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis commented that it is the government’s – not justice’s – responsibility to decide on the fiscal policy to be followed, alluding to recent court decisions upholding certain public servants’ claims that their wage cuts were illegal.
Hardouvelis called enterpreneurs to open up their minds to the prospect of foreign investors owning a segment of their businesses, noting that “we must bring foreign capital so as to create a balance which will help the economy as a whole.”
The Minister stood by the reform efforts of the government, noting that even without the lenders’ immediate pressure “there can be no going back to the old times.” He also conceded that the Greek taxation system is in need of a “great simplification,” as well as to become “a stable tax system.”
Hardouvelis called on the businessmen to restart investing, in view of the Greek economy’s recovery.
He reiterated each Ministry’s obligations in relation to the second package of prior actions as well as the main of the about 600 memorandum actions that have been pending since spring.
The Finance Ministry is asking for a quick implementation of the prior actions and said that there was no room for complacency and that all the issues that were left pending after the Troika’s mini-review, need to be settled in the next 55 days.
In this case, Finance Ministry officials say, the Troika’s autumn review could last 20 days or one month at most. The Minister will travel to Brussels for the October 13 Eurogroup meeting, having reached an agreement – at least in principle – with the lenders’ representatives, paving the way for the negotiations over a new settlement for the public debt.
(source: ana-mpa)
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