Arab Economic Forum | Prime Minister’s speech

PRIME MINISTER’S PRESS OFFICE
May 20, 2010

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Mr. Prime Minister Hariri, dear friend Saad, Your Highness, dear Ministers, dear Amre, ladies and gentlemen and dear friends,

It’s both a pleasure and an honor to speak to such a distinguished group, at the opening of the 18th Arab Economic Forum.

The ties between our nations and our peoples, my personal ties with the Arab world are strong, are historical. We are united by a common heritage, a heritage that has given birth to so many elements of modern civilization. We are united by a history of deep friendship and economic cooperation.

The past decades have left indelible marks on our nations, many difficulties. But that has only brought us closer.

My father, Andreas Papandreou, former Prime Minister of Greece, did not cease to manifest his commitment to the region and to this friendship. He developed genuine friendships with many of the great leaders of the Arab world, and in the more difficult, even tragic times Greece stood beside you.

Solidarity is more than just a word for us. It is a genuine feeling of the Greek people towards the peoples of the Arab world. It is how I personally feel for my Arab brothers and sisters.

As Minister of Foreign Affairs in the past, or as President of the Socialist International, I worked consistently to strengthen our relations, to search for common solutions to common challenges.

I was here with you in Beirut during the difficult times Lebanon and the Lebanese people went through in recent years. I was here just before the invasion in Iraq. I was here after the tragic death of your father, Saad, Rafic Hariri. I was in Beirut during the war in 2006.

And I am here today in my first visit to the region as Prime Minister of Greece, to assure you I will continue along this path, furthering the political, cultural, commercial and business relations between Greece and the Arab world.

Greece also has a small but very important and very strong Lebanese community, and I am glad to see my friend here, Mr. Houri, who is with us for this meeting.

You can consider us staunch, committed friends, partners in the Middle East and North Africa, both on a bilateral basis, but also within the framework of the European neighborhood policy, the Union for the Mediterranean and as a member of the European Union.

Let me also stress the need for a comprehensive solution in the region, peace between Palestinians and Israelis, which is essential, essential for peace in the whole area of the Middle East, as well as for international peace.

With the resumption of the proximity talks, we must strive for the establishment of a just, comprehensive and durable peace, based on international law and previous agreements.

All, including Israel, must respect United Nations Security Council resolutions. And of course the Arab peace initiative must be promoted. The roadmap obligations must be fulfilled, to move forward on core issues, on the basis of a two-state solution along the 1967 lines.

Along with our European Union partners, we, Greece, will spare no efforts in order to improve the conditions related to the new initiative of indirect talks in the Palestinian-Israeli track.

Our aim is to reinvigorate the European Union’s role in the Quartet, and of course, Amre, to engage more actively with the Arab League.

I would like to call here from Beirut on the international community to live up to its responsibilities. The issues in the region many years ago were focused around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but today this conflict has become a world issue. It has become the focus of growth, of polarization, of fundamentalisms, of extremisms around the world. This cannot continue.

And solutions do exist. I remember here in Beirut, when I chaired a meeting of the Socialist International of the parties of the region, and there were Israelis and there were Palestinians. And we sat down and we worked and we came up with common statements concerning issues so difficult, such as Jerusalem and the right of return of refugees.

So solutions do exist. But there needs to be a will, a will for solutions, a will from the international community.

And as Amre Moussa said, security is essential for this region, for the world, if we want to talk about growth and prosperity. It is even more essential now because of the economic crisis.

Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to commend the Lebanese government and Prime Minister Hariri for his efforts to stabilize the region, bringing a new spirit in the neighborhood, bringing a new spirit of stability, and also helping his country move towards progress and growth despite the economic crisis.

Despite the global financial crisis, economic relations between Greece and the Arab countries in general have shown significant progress in the past years. Commercial transactions have risen by almost 35%. Last year the volume of trade between Greece and the 18 countries of the Middle East, the Gulf and Northern Africa amounted to around EUR5 billion. In the same year Greek exports to these countries represented 9% of total Greek exports, 11.8% of the total Greek trade deficit, imports from these countries 10% of total Greek imports.

I don’t want to bore you with statistics, but Greek exports to the region consist of foodstuffs, building materials, machinery, electrical equipment, cotton, tobacco, metal products, plastics, fuel, pharmaceuticals, telecommunication equipment and garments, while we import hydrocarbons, oil and gas, chemicals, fertilizers, vegetables and seafood.

There is a significant entrepreneurial presence, particularly in Egypt, in the United Arab Emirates and Libya, especially in the fields of construction, banking, telecommunications and information technology, oil exploration, real estate, agriculture and various other industries.

Over the past few years, there has been an increasing investment flow into Greece, emanating from countries like Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, in various fields of activities such as telecommunications, information technology, banking and finance, shipbuilding and renewable sources of energy.

Ladies and gentlemen, the financial crisis has altered the prospects for global economic prosperity and has had an influence, a decisive influence, on the economies of many countries. It has also fundamentally changed the lives of millions of people.

Financial giants have collapsed, with them firm convictions about what economic growth and development should look like.

It has demonstrated the necessity for greater international cooperation, for joint action to address contemporary economic problems. It has highlighted the need for a system of economic governance. And this is something which we have discussed in the eurozone, in the European Union, and are taking measures for better regulation, for further governance, for stabilizing measures, in order to help the economic situation worldwide and create prosperity and growth again.

We need better regulated markets in order to avoid similar events in the future. We need to make regulation stable, to protect both our economies but also to protect our citizens, their lifelong earnings, their savings from their hard work.

Naturally, the crisis has also affected Greece. The implications for us Greeks were disproportionately large, for the simple reason that our country entered this period already fragile and weak. In previous years, budget deficits, public debt had gone out of control, with the decline in competitiveness.

So I myself, we had to take very difficult measures, make deep changes, and we have done so.

And with this determination we were also able to gain credibility and the solidarity, the support of our partners in the European Union, to take action in the form of a European support mechanism, as it is called, in order to decisively address the fiscal and financial problems we were facing.

The provision of EUR110 billion from the eurozone countries and the IMF have translated into protection of our country and a guarantee that we will be able to meet our borrowing needs for a long time to come.

But above all, this package, this security, has given us the time to make the major changes and reforms we need.

We have also decided in the European Union for a much bigger package, to make sure that the eurozone is protected, that many countries that may have problems are protected, in order to make the necessary changes and become more competitive, more viable economies.

Ladies and gentlemen, these changes are a huge paradigm shift in government and business for Greece. We are restructuring our tax and our pension system. We are limiting bureaucracy and making our economy investment friendly. We are passing new legislation so that new companies can be founded and licensed right away, while in the past this took many months.

The business environment in Greece is changing rapidly, and we have done in the past few months what we should have done over the past few decades. I personally am creating a specific Foreign Direct Investment Task Force under my personal control, seconded by the Minister of State, so that we overcome bureaucracy, present new opportunities to possible investment partners, and create a one-stop shop investment facility.

We are passing a new legislative fast track procedure, which allows us to prioritize investment and overcome bureaucratic obstacles.

We are also committed to develop our comparative advantages, and these we have many of. Greece is a natural hub, at the crossroads of three continents, Europe, Asia and Africa. This gives us a unique geographical advantage, especially in the fields of commerce, energy investments, and provision of services such as banking.

Greece also has a number of unique natural resources, which we plan to utilize in a sustainable, green manner. We see climate change, which is a challenge to us all, also as an opportunity, an opportunity to change our development model and make our economies competitive in the Mediterranean, in order that we develop these new sustainable possibilities, moving out of a carbon economy to a green economy in all sectors, from tourism to energy, from transport to construction.

And in this context, together with my Turkish counterpart, Prime Minister Erdogan, we are ready to promote an initiative for the Mediterranean region, focusing on providing effective adaptation solutions to climate challenges, but also to revamp important areas, from agriculture to tourism to urban life.

And I look forward to working with all the countries in the region, certainly with my partner Saad Hariri, in this initiative within the Mediterranean Forum, bringing governments, businesses, stakeholders around the same table, to protect natural resources but also building solidarity and stability for the greater area, in mutually beneficial economic development.

Another area which many of you may know and which we are developing strategically is tourism, and we will be investing in high-quality tourism, using culture, the beauty, the history, and of course the diet to make Greece a perfect place to visit but also to invest in.

Another area is the high-tech communications and information technology. And this is where Greece has an important area to develop, as we are a country of many islands and many mountains, and this will create social cohesion but also great opportunities for investment.