The Greek government released for public consultation on Monday the preliminary draft of the road map for the development of the Greek economy prepared by the “Pissarides Commission.” Main goal is to boost productivity, increase exports, better connect production with technology and innovation, and support labor. He stressed that several of the report’s proposals were in line with the government’s actions already in place.
The final report is expected in September 2020.
The commission is headed by Nobel recipient in economics Christopher Pissarides.
In its 151 pages, the Development Plan envisages supporting unemployed people to return to the labor market through integrating vocational training; expanding the maternal leave system to fathers as well; offering tax incentives to households that invest, long-term, in Greek companies listed in the Athens Stock Exchange; offering incentives for mergers and acquisitions with the aim to magnify Greek enterprises, promote scale economics and cooperation, and setting up specialized departments in courts to deal with cases of significant financial interest within 12 months.
The financial priorities of the plan include: boosting investments and exports as a percentage of GDP, strengthening wage labor and reducing informal economy, investing in education and knowledge, raising the size of Greek enterprises, promoting cutting-edge technology, innovation and digitalization, achieving ambitious environmental goals and supporting weak households.
The professors who drafted the report also recommend: reducing tax burdens on wage labor, speeding up amortizations and lowering energy cost in manufacturing, supporting research in universities, incentives to boost innovation; radical upgrading of vocational training for unemployed and employed people; introducing a capitalized system in the second pylon of social insurance; creating specialized departments in courts to deal with cases of significant financial interest; continuing a digital reform of the public sector; modernizing the system of financial supervision to protect investors; modernizing education in all grades; restructuring of the health system; gradual return of real estate tax money to local level; energy upgrading of buildings; turn to renewable energy sources; development of infrastructure.
The text, it said, “is a draft being released for public consultation, nor the last proposal. The final report will follow in September 2020.”
PS So far it is understood that the draft is oriented into neo-liberal policies like privatization of supplementary pensions, it justifies the banks’ attitude towards small businesses, and let recession develop. Among others the draft criticizes that “shortage in savings as there are no incentives for such actions.”
It looks like another academic, theoretical report far away from the real life. People cannot save because they have no money to make ends meet until the end of the month.
