Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-09-23

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] EU Task Force head presents report on SMEs

[01] EU Task Force head presents report on SMEs

"The economy will suffer if SMEs are unable to thrive in this country and, therefore, growth will suffer as well. So, I appreciate the cooperation that exists between the market sector representatives that seeks to turn into action the recommendations included in this report," he said in a press conference.

He said that Greece has achieved an improvement in indices, noting that the speeding up of reforms that will help small and medium-sized enterprises is necessary.

As regards the contributions to social insurance funds and taxation, he said that such problems cannot be solved in a systemic way, even though there are ideas on how to avoid the accumulation of debt in social insurance funds, among them, the extension of repayment time.

He said that significant effort has been made to increase exports but additional actions are necessary while, as regards red tape, he noted that a lot of work still needs to be done.

Reichenbach said that efforts are being made by public administration working groups to enhance institutions and replace expensive loans with cheaper ones. "The 200 million euros earmarked for this purpose is small but a success in the effort will be encouraging," he said.

SMEs have been hit by taxation and lack of liquidity but this does not mean that something is wrong with entrepreneurship, he noted.

Reichenbach said that the progress made was slower than anticipated and he expressed certainty that the efforts that will be made by the minister of competitiveness will bring results, while stressing that this will take time.

On the measures for facilitating exports, he said that progress was slower compared to initial estimates, adding that SMEs are still faced with excessive red tape.

He underlined that the Eurogroup expects Greece to create its own prospects for the future and expressed hope that the report's recommendations will assist in this effort.

Reichenbach also noted repeatedly that the new financing period for the structural funds has just been launched and this provides an opportunity for a solution to capital guarantees and liquidity in general.

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