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Victoria Mindova

The One-Stop-Shop service which will enable new entrepreneurs to open a company in just one day is of national importance, said the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou. He attended the official launch of the new electronic system in the Athens Crafts Chamber. "This system breaks the myth that Greeks can not make serious changes," said the Greek Prime Minister proudly. He continued with a resounding political speech: "The opaque and bureaucratic system is broken to release the enormous power of local entrepreneurship for the benefit of the whole country."

The uniform commercial register and the service for opening a company in a day are expected to win 100 places in the Starting a Business category of the World Bank’ Doing Business ranking, of course, on one condition. And it is the service for opening a business in a day to include the issuing of the permits for activities, which will happen till the end of 2011, as promised by the representatives of the Department for Trade at the Ministry of Regional Development.

Until then, Greece has to make serious political and economic decisions, including the presentation of the new detailed plan for the medium-term financial recovery. A significant part of it is the privatisation program, which the government expects to raise 50 billion euros by 2015 or a total of 20% of the GDP. Unfortunately, it has serious opponents, both in the opposition to PASOK and within the party itself.

Whatever the difficulties encountered by the Papandreou's office, however, they should be resolved promptly, because the members of the supervisory Troika warned that this time there is no room for gaps in the implementation. The leaders of the tripartite mission - Paul Thomsen from the International Monetary Fund, Klause Mazuch from the European Central Bank and Yuniker Kroger from the European Commission requested the acceleration of the privatisation process, which actually has not yet begun. The first in the queue are the big state companies, which are listed and traded on the Athens Stock Exchange.

The other tasks of the Greek officials are to increase the revenue of public enterprises such as the Greek electricity company and the companies for water management. This will be done by additionally increasing the prices for individuals and companies in order to make these enterprises less dependent on government funding. Then comes the change in the rules for recruitment in the public administration - now for seven retired will be appointed just one employee instead of for every five, as was adopted in 2010. Recruitment in the public sector could be frozen, but there is still no official decision. The trade union of public sector employees has a response to this measure and threatens to hold a series of strikes that could seriously disturb the plans of the government.

To fill the black hole in government revenue, the government will have to minimize the products and services taxed at the lower VAT value of 13% and to transfer them to the main tax value which is 23%. The elimination of the geographical diversification is discussed according to which the Greek islands enjoy 18% of main VAT and 8% for food and other products. There will be changes in corporate taxation, which will reduce the depreciation values and law loopholes will be eliminated not to allow some companies to be exempt from tax obligations. More stringent control on trade is expected as well as real actions in the fight against tax unfairness.

The planning and proper implementation of these and many other reforms will determine whether Greece will receive the next installment of the financial aid that must be paid in mid-May, this year. It amounts to 12 billion euros, 11 billion euros of which will go on repayment of foreign debt due to its maturity. If the Troika is not seriously convinced that the country could cope with the implementation of the recovery plan and shows no flaws, Greece will not receive the money, which will immediately place it in an awkward position to creditors.

And while Papandreou sees the opening of new electronic systems for registration of companies as a national priority, local economic analysts are joking that the Prime Minister should open a One-Stop-Shop for closing of companies, because it will be much needed in the current economic conditions.