New York Stock Exchange | Press Conference
PRIME MINISTER
PRESS OFFICE
New York, September 20, 2010
PRIME MINISTER GEORGE A. PAPANDREOU AND CHAIRMAN OF NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE MARSHALL CARTER
MR. M. CARTER: Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of NYSE Euronext, I’d like to welcome Prime Minister Papandreou here to the NYSE. We just had a very engaging, delightful lunch conversation about all the hard work that is going on here and in Greece. And I think one can’t help but be impressed from a distance at the speed with which you and your government have implemented some of the changes focusing on good governance, efficient governance and transparent governance.
So we are delighted to have you in the building. As I mentioned to you at lunch, we count several Greek companies among our great community of companies here. We look forward to taking you down to the floor and see first hand how some of those stocks are traded here.
But with that, I will turn it over to you, sir. Thank you.
MR. G. PAPANDREOU: Thank you. Thank you for the warm hospitality and, as you said, Greece is on target. We are moving ahead, certainly taking the pain of reform, but we are making real progress, real change, and coming out stronger. Greece will come out stronger. Europe will come out stronger, and I hope the world economy will benefit from all that is being done in the European Union to make this world much more stable, the financial world much more stable.
Greece has made major reforms over the past eleven months, from the pension system to the tax system to transparency, to cutting the deficit down. The target is 40%. We are on target, and we are committed. Greek people are committed, and we will make it happen. Thank you.
QUESTION: If Greece can’t return to the bond market, would you agree to another package? Would you extend those same austerity measures that you are talking about beyond 2013?
MR. G. PAPANDREOU: Well, what we have created is a program which is for three, actually four years. This program is revamping our economy, making major structural changes, in order that we become a competitive economy and we come out into the markets.
So our whole purpose is to come out into the market as soon as possible, and certainly the structural changes we are making will make us an economy which is competitive and viable.
QUESTION: And you say coming out on the market. Do you have a timeline in mind that you are working towards, and are you talking about a Eurobond? Are you considering possibly a dollar bond?
MR. G. PAPANDREOU: We have talked about a diaspora bond. Other countries have done this. India, Israel have done this, sort of gone out to the diaspora. We won’t be going out to the markets now, but of course we will be doing it as soon as possible.
QUESTION: If this is a goal, to go to the market, investors will move on and see what kind of growth policy, what kind of change is that, beyond the austerity measures that you are seeking?
MR. G. PAPANDREOU: That’s true. I think there is something which is a concern around the world. We need growth; we need to make sure that we are creating jobs. We talked about this here in the New York Stock Exchange, and the issue of creating jobs is key on the minds, I think, of world leaders all over the planet.
This is one of the issues we’ll be talking about also now during the Millennium Development Goals. Greece has great potential. We have great potential because we have underutilized resources such as the so-called green resources. We have the biggest wind potential in Europe, solar potential, geothermal potential, for the so-called renewable energy resources.
This, we believe, in the next five years will create up to 250,000 jobs, which is quite a big number for Greece.
We have great potential in tourism, in developing tourism. New markets are opening up: China, India, Japan, the US, of course, Israel and Turkey, Russia. And we have seen this even with some of the difficult press we had the last few months. Still, tourism was quite robust this year.
We also have the capability to move into a high-niche agricultural market for high-quality food, Mediterranean food. Mediterranean diet is a brand in itself.
And of course we have a very strong shipping industry, which we believe will be growing over the next few years, and will be also investing in Greece, which is much more business-friendly than before.
We have also brought in new legislation for fast-track big investment, cut down the red tape, make things transparent and make Greece very attractive for investment.
And we have been getting important interest from countries such as the Emirates, Russia, China. They are very interested in investing in our country.
QUESTION: I was just reading over the weekend about all the austerity measures that have been put into place, and bondholders being much more optimistic. It was all optimism about now the eurozone being in a much better place, not collapsing, and your austerity measures doing well.
And Goldman Sachs and HSBC saying that Greek bonds, 30-year bonds, are highly undervalued. And with that, you even have some bonds available tomorrow.
Why should investors invest in Greece? And also what are your biggest challenges at this point? I hear you talking about renewable energy and the Mediterranean diet, of which I am a big fan, but these are the two questions that I have. Number one, what worries you most? And number two, why should people feel confident to invest in Greek bonds?
MR. G. PAPANDREOU: We are very committed, and I think what we have shown – and that has created the optimism – is that we have the political will and we are implementing; we are on target.
People a few months ago were saying that Greece was not credible, Greece couldn’t do it. We are doing it. We are showing the world that we can and that the Greek people are, in the majority, supporting this very difficult program. But they know and we know that we are turning Greece around, we are changing Greece.
And Greece has been undervalued, and that’s why I think it’s an opportunity to invest in Greece. And our main concern is that we continue, despite the optimism, to move forward and make the major changes, so that we not only move out of this crisis, which we have done basically right now, but to make sure that this is sustainable, that we have a truly competitive and sustainable Greek economy.