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Simona Peneva

"What our country needs is production. Production and exports. Years ago, the percentage of imports in Greece was lower than the European average, and now it exceeds this level," said Secretary General of Public Investment George Yiannousis at a press conference on  "State-Owned Enterprises and Development". He admitted he was extremely happy to see, after a long time, business and competitiveness at the centre of public interest, but also of economy. President of the Association of Exporters of Northern Greece, Kyriakos Loufakis confirmed these words. "Export is the key to the improvement and development of the Greek economy. In the period 2009-2013 the country exported 57.1% of its goods, including oil, and now there is a sharp decline in exports. This is due to the lack of liquidity," he said.

Some time ago, 35% of the exports of Greece were due to small- and medium-sized enterprises whereas the figure in Europe reached only 24%. Deputy Minister of Development Odysseas Konstantinopoulos said that the organization Mediator of the Operational Programme "Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship" has very good contacts in the market and has done a lot for the development of the country in recent years. "A new National Strategic Reference Framework for 2014-2020 is being planned, which will secure Greece a better and faster development," he said.

Obviously, the inability to obtain funding appears to be a problem for the country too. Things such as performance adequacy, access to funding sources, increasing industrial production, attention to the spatial dimensions of deindustrialization and of small- and medium-sized enterprises, and the integration of research and innovation are identified as required. The Association of Exporters of Northern Greece offers a new common policy for small- and medium-sized enterprises to help them increase exports as well as simplifying the programmes and their "time frame", which means no deadlines for submission of proposals and projects. Part of what the association seeks to achieve is funding with working capital, high quality services and preparing a list of potential customers.

The total operating budget for Public Improvements Activities currently available to the non-governmental organization Mediator of the Operational Programme "Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship" is 3 billion euro. The main goal of the organization, the shareholding structure of which represents the majority of the collective business organizations in the country, is the provision of high quality management services to the contracting entities in terms of the Public Improvements Activities. In particular, the organization manages 15 programmes with approximately 26,000 integrated projects/beneficial enterprises, a total of 3 billion euro, and 1.5 billion euro in public spending as well as small- and medium-sized enterprises operating in the field of production, trade, services, tourism, and professional training.