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Athens News Agency: News in English, 11-02-15Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] ND on BoG report; private sector wages(ANA-MPA) -- The main opposition New Democracy (ND) party sharply attacked the government on Tuesday, criticising it for the economic policy it follows.Referring to the annual Monetary Policy Report for 2010-2011, issued by the Bank of Greece (BoG), ND spokesman Yiannis Mihelakis underlined that "the fact that the economy has entered a vicious circle of recession is being confirmed". "The BoG says what ND leader Antonis Samaras has been saying for months," Mihelakis stressed, adding that "the only way is development and changing the economic policy mixâ¦The dead ends of the memorandum and the policy followed by the Papandreou government have paralysed the economy. The sacrifices of the people go to waste and the future is ominous". (ANA-MPA) He also accused the government of lacking a plan, vision, hope and development prospect, stressing that it "sank Greece into recession, unemployment and austerity in no time". As regards the exploitation of state real estate, Mihelakis called on the government to respond immediately if it intends to bring the issue up for discussion in a Cabinet meeting. He also referred to the future of the private sector 13th and 14th salaries (half-salary Easter and summer vacation bonuses and a full-salary Christmas bonus), stressing that the explanations given by the competent government ministers leave room for any eventuality. (ANA-MPA) More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form  [02] Geniki Bank announces net losses of 403.5 mln euros in 2010(ANA-MPA) -- To view the article please call the ANA-MPA's subscription department at 2106400560.More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form  [03] Thessaloniki mayor in Istanbul(ANA-MPA) -- Thessaloniki Mayor Yiannis Boutaris will travel to Istanbul on Wednesday where he will be received by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, while on Thursday he will inaugurate an exhibition by British painter and architect Doug Patterson.The exhibition at the Patriarchate-affiliated Zografeion Lyceum, to run until March 8, will be inaugurated by Boutaris in his capacity as the Mount Athos Center chairman. On display will be paintings of monastic communities, including Mount Athos and St. Catherine's Monastery in the Sinai. Meanwhile, the municipality of Thessaloniki announced on Tuesday that the mayor's recent visit to Tel Aviv on Feb. 9-11 focused on making the city a more attractive tourism destination for Israeli visitors, while the issue of the return of Jewish community archives to Thessaloniki from Moscow was also raised. It was also announced that the mayor of Tel Aviv will visit Thessaloniki in the near future, whereas Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem expressed a desire to establish a Sepulchre Exarchate in Thessaloniki. On his part, Boutaris offered his support to the Organization of the Greek Survivors of the Holocaust, who have long lobbied to re-acquire Greek citizenship, which was lost when they left Greece to immigrate to Israel after WWII. (ANA-MPA) More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form  [04] Production from Prinos deposit up by 50%(ANA-MPA) -- The production of the Prinos oil deposit in northern Greece, off the port city of Kavala, increased by 50 percent from 2,000 to 3,000 barrels per day, following the completion of PA-35 drilling, which is expected to produce reserves of 1.8 million barrels over the next four years, according to an announcement on Tuesday by Energean Oil & Gas, which has the exploitation rights.The PA-35 drilling is part of the 'Prinos 5000' program that aims to increase overall daily production to 5,000 barrels and foresees investments of 20 million dollars in 2011. (ANA-MPA) A total of one million barrels were produced from the region's deposits in 2010, while the target is to increase production by 50 percent to 1.5 million barrels in 2011. The PA-35 drilling was inaugurated last December at a depth of 2,327 metres, which was followed by the placement of the required equipment. Production commenced on Feb. 11. With only 175 exploratory drillings over a total area of 130,000 square kilometres, Greece is reportedly considered as under-explored regions for oil and natural gas deposits. It is characteristic that for the discovery of the deposits in the Prinos basin, which has an area of about 450 square kilometres, 26 exploratory drillings have taken place, and exploratory work is continuing in the region. The country's "possible crude oil" regions include western Greece, Grevena, the Thermaikos Gulf, the Thrace Sea, western Thrace, the sea region of the Sporades isles in the central Aegean and the sea region south-southeast of Crete. (ANA-MPA) More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form  [05] BoG: Major progress, more needed(ANA-MPA) -- The Bank of Greece (BoG) ascertained "substantial steps of progress" in tackling the country's immense debt and weak competitiveness, in its annual Monetary Policy Report for 2010-2011, which was submitted by central bank chief George Provopoulos to the Parliament president on Tuesday.However, despite the progress observed, "there are still many things that need to be done", Provopoulos said, adding his belief that "we need to speed up the structural changes, to act faster and more decisively". (ANA-MPA) "In the current conditions that is the only safe way to bring economic growth to the country more quickly," the BoG governor said while submitted the report. (ANA-MPA) More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form  [06] FinMin confirms privatisation goalBRUSSELS (ANA-MPA) -- Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou on Tuesday confirmed that the government is planning an ambitious privatisation programme to raise 50 billion euros but stressed that this would not mean selling off public land.He was speaking to reporters after a Eurogroup council meeting in Brussels that agreed to double funds available to a permanent eurozone bailout mechanism to 500 billion euro. Referring to the need to reduce Greece's very high public debt, Papaconstantinou said that this would be achieved by generating primary surpluses and through higher growth rates resulting from the major structural (ANA-MPA) changes being carried out by the government. In addition, a programme to privatise and make use of publicly owned real estate would raise 50 billion euro over the next four years that would be used to pay down debt. He clarified, however, that this did not mean the sale of public land, such as beaches, mountains or forests. (ANA-MPA) More details on the subscriber's page of ANA-MPA | Subscription request form  [07] FM on Cyprus visitNICOSIA (ANA-MPA) -- After talks with his Cyprus counterpart Markos Kyprianou here on Tuesday, Greece's Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas again called on Ankara to immediately begin withdrawing its occupation forces from the island and to "sincerely contribute to finding a mutually acceptable solution to the Cyprus issue."He stressed that such a course of action would help Turkey further its ambitions of joining the European Union. The minister underlined that if Turkey sincerely desired a solution, it must accept that the root cause of the Cyprus problem was the invasion and military occupation of the island and withdraw its forces. Droutsas reported that his talks with Kyprianou had centred mainly on the efforts underway to solve the Cyprus problem. 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