Statement by the President of GSEVEE, Mr. G. Kavvathas in the presentation of the half-yearly survey of the IME Small Business Enterprises GSEVEE – August 2017

According to IME GSEVEE’s economic climate survey, the Greek economy is showing signs of stabilization and a gradual return to regularity, but the big stakes remain the sustainability of positive growth rates and the participation of small businesses in the growth dividend.

As the shocks of the crisis start to falter, the structural problems facing domestic small and medium-sized enterprises, which require active and courageous interventions in the field of economic policy, are becoming clearer. In order for the domestic market to emerge from the tunnel of prolonged stagnation structural reforms adapted to the needs of the SMEs and the Greek economy, such as the development of appropriate financial and development tools to increase investment, improve access financing, tax cuts, simplification of business licensing procedures, more efficient state and justice, strengthening clusters etc. In this direction you should:

1. To create the appropriate tools for the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises, and for this reason we believe that the announced recommendation of the Development Bank is an important initiative.
2. Effective enforcement of the out-of-court debt settlement mechanism and extension to natural and legal persons in order to integrate as many businesses and households into it as possible.
3. Create the ultimate business account, for those businesses that are doing electronic transactions, even at the very end, as this will boost public revenues and improve the liquidity of banks.