Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-11-03

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greece has made significant progress in correcting past mistakes, BoG governor says

[02] Parliament approves amendments on TV licensing law

[03] Wineries in Northern Greece open their doors to visitors on European Day of Wine Tourism

[04] 59 pct of Greek employers troubled by talent shortage

[01] Greece has made significant progress in correcting past mistakes, BoG governor says

Addressing a EU-Arab World Summit "Partners for Growth and Development:Prospects of the Greek economy after six years of adjustment", the Greek central banker said, foreign direct investment is also essential for Greece, because it will set in motion a virtuous circle signaling investor confidence in Greece's future prospects, a definite exit from the crisis and a return to sustainable and extrovert economic growth,

Despite delays and missteps, progress in correcting past mistakes was impressive, Stournaras continued. Therefore, a new ESM program, agreed in August 2015, based on the achievements of the first two programs, gives priority to reforms.

He said that a gradual economic recovery was already reflected on a series of key economic indicators, such as industrial production, retail sales, wage employment flows in the private sector and real exports of goods. The Bank of Greece expects the Greek economy to recover in the second half of 2016 and to continue in 2017 and 2018, with the country's GDP expected to fall 0.3 pct this year, but to rise by 2.5 pct and 3.0 pct in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Nevertheless, risks to the outlook of the Greek economy remain. Delays in the implementation of reforms and privatizations envisaged in the program would dampen economic growth, thereby refueling uncertainty, undermining confidence and weakening the prospects of a definitive exit from the crisis.

Meanwhile, there also are risks and uncertainties regarding the course of the global economy, stemming, among other things, from protectionist voices and actions around the world, the implementation of a hard Brexit, and a likely exacerbation of the refugee crisis. These risks could slow down the recovery of the Greek economy, both through negative effects on tourism and trade and through a slower-than-expected decline in yields on Greek government bonds due to the risk aversion from global investors.

The containment of the above mentioned risks and the realization of the positive prospects of the Greek economy require a number of tangible and concerted actions, such as accelerating reforms and privatizations, dealing with non-performing loans and agreed on long-term measures to ensure the sustainability of the Greek public debt, Stournaras said.

[02] Parliament approves amendments on TV licensing law

SYRIZA, ANEL and the Democratic Coalition voted "Yes" on the amendment to suspend article 2A, while New Democracy, Golden Dawn and Potami voted "No". The Centrists' Union and the Communist Party voted "Present".

On the amendment to include NCRTV in the decision on the number of licenses that should be issued and their starting price during the auction, SYRIZA, ANEL, the Democratic Coalition and Potami voted "Yes", while New Democracy, Golden Dawn and the Centrists' Union voted "No". The Communist Party voted "present".

[03] Wineries in Northern Greece open their doors to visitors on European Day of Wine Tourism

Eighteen wineries along the wine roads of northern Greece are taking part in the event that allows visitors to tour the wineries from 11:00 until 17:00 and taste older vintages, as well as the fresh ones collected in 2016.

The European Day of Wine Tourism, launched in 2009, invites wine lovers every second Sunday in November to a series of events aimed at the promotion of European wine territories, organized and jointly promoted by each city or town in their territory in efforts to stimulate wine tourism. Participating wineries belong to the European network of wine cities (RECEVIN) or other wine tourism networks.

[04] 59 pct of Greek employers troubled by talent shortage

On a global level, 40 pct of employers had difficulties in finding workers with necessary skills, up 2.0 percentage points from 2015 and the highest recorded since 2007, evidence that a lack of talent is not abating.

Greece ranks eighth in the world ranking after Japan, Taiwan, Romania, Hong Kong and Turkey, down one place from 2015. Seventy pct of Greek employers believed that the most important strategy to battle talent shortage was to offer training and development programs to existing personnel, while 47 pct of employers said their strategy was to search for talent beyond "traditional tanks" and 42 pct said their strategy was adopting alternative hiring strategies.

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