Reversing yet another pledge, the Greek government is considering selling or leasing some of the country’s islands in a desperate bid to raise cash to help keep the sinking economy afloat and convince international lenders to keep rescue loans coming.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras admitted the idea is under consideration as part of long-delayed privatization plans to sell off state-owned entities and properties because of pressure from the Troika of the European Union-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank (EU-IMF-ECB) which is withholding a second bailout for $173 billion until the government makes $14.16 billion more in cuts, passes more austerity measures and speeds the pace of privatization.
He told Le Monde newspaper in an interview that uninhabited Greek islands could be used to generate revenue. “On condition that it doesn’t pose a national security problem, some of the isles could be used commercially,” Samaras was quoted by the newspaper. “It would not be a case of getting rid of the isles, but of transforming unused terrain into capital that can generate revenue, for a fair price.”
Samaras argued that investment is crucial to reviving the Greek economy, adding that railways and a portion of the Attica coast may also be attractive to private patrons. Local travel sites list Chrissi as one of the many uninhabited isles surrounding Crete, Greece. Samaras said that that the assets, especially the islands, would not simply be liquidated. “This is not, in any way, about selling them off for cheap, but about transforming unused terrain into capital that could generate revenue, at a fair price,” Samaras said.
Greece has been dragging its feet for two years on privatization, ever since former Prime Minister George Papandreou, then the leader of the PASOK Socialists, went hat-in-hand to the IMF asking for his country to be rescued. The Troika initially estimated as much as $70 billion could be raised but only about $4 billion has been realized.
Samaras met in Athens with Eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker before heading out to see German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin on Aug. 25 and French President Francois Hollande the next day to talk about Greece’s reform efforts and ask for a two-year delay to meet fiscal targets to reduce the country’s deficit from 9.3 to 3 percent.
The state asset sales process must be re-launched,” Juncker told reporters. “I do not ignore that this privatization process is swimming in difficult waters given the fact that the rumors of the exit of Greece from the euro area are spread around day after day.”
Selling public land is a politically sensitive issue in Greece and was opposed by Papandreou, who was forced out of office last year after two years of protests, strikes and riots against austerity, a prospect looming now for Samaras as well as he’s planning to put yet more pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions on the country’s most vulnerable while ignoring tax evaders who owe the country $70 billion.
(Sources: Bloomberg, LeMonde)
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
