Sallas: New architecture for convergence with Europe

Greece is currently at a historical turning point as it has rare development tools at its disposal, Michalis Sallas, Chairman of Lyktos Group and Honorary Chairman of Piraeus Bank, said.European resources such as the Recovery and Resilience Fund, the National Strategic Reference Framework, the green and digital transition, as well as the high liquidity in capital markets, offer a unique opportunity.

Our country has paid dearly for the lack of strategic planning. For decades, many of the projects were implemented with huge delays, discouraging serious private investments, thus keeping the country’s regions in a developmental lag and with great inequalities. Perhaps bright exceptions are the first period of Konstantinos Karamanlis and the period of Costas Simitis.

Despite the improvements of recent years, the country is lagging behind the European Union, in terms of per capita income, and not only. We are lagging behind in a series of quantitative and qualitative indicators. The country can no longer wait. Even if GDP growth is at 2.5% and Europe’s at 1.5%, it takes 37 years to approach the European average. We therefore need more serious and higher rates of progress.

Greece does not have the luxury, mainly for geopolitical reasons, to lag behind for decades. Demographics, low productivity, problematic public administration, inertia on critical infrastructure and investment issues, create an explosive mixture that threatens not only progress but also the country’s long-term sustainability. To change this course, government planning as we have known it in recent decades is not enough. It requires substantial involvement of people who have proven that they can manage resources, build organizations, face crises, innovate and withstand international competition. That is, a partnership in planning the development of successful and recognized scientists, managers and entrepreneurs. Without these changes, time will not work in our favor.

7 pillars

We must therefore, if we want to talk seriously about development, move forward with a new National Plan based on 7 fundamental pillars:

1. Targeted regional development: Greece cannot develop in a balanced way without decentralized planning. From Western Macedonia to the Aegean islands, the needs of each region must be determined, with measurable goals and progress indicators. Each region must utilize and highlight, in collaboration with central services, its own comparative advantage — natural resources, geographical location, cultural identity or human resources — in order to become a pillar of the national productive model. At the same time, interregional economic relations need to be strengthened: projects and investments that not only serve local interests, but create connections and interdependencies between regions. Road axes, energy networks, research centers, clusters and modern logistics that unite regions can act as catalysts for productive integration on a national scale.

2. Upgrading Public Administration: Upgrading the Greek public administration is a critical prerequisite for the country’s progress. A modern, productive and effective administration must be based on meritocracy and evaluation, transparency, know-how and continuous training. Reducing bureaucracy, through the digitization of services and the interconnection of registers, facilitates the citizen, reduces administrative costs, contributes substantially to attracting investments and strengthens trust in the state. Very important steps have been taken in recent years, but we are still quite far behind.

3. Functional infrastructure interconnection: Infrastructures that do not cooperate with each other are doomed to fail. We need ports that are seamlessly connected to coastal shipping and transport or railways, energy projects with warehouses and network infrastructure, hospitals with staffing. Agriculture interconnected with tourism needs and supply chains in Greece and abroad. In addition, geographically integrated ecosystems — with universities, production units, distribution and logistics companies — must be created so that development is systemic and sustainable.

4. Basic support for the tourism industry: The success of Greek tourism hides a serious and growing crisis: the inability to find housing for the people who work and help the local communities of the islands. Tourism workers, seasonal employees, public servants, doctors, teachers and firefighters are called upon every year to offer their services in areas where the cost of housing is prohibitive or availability is zero. An immediate priority and need is the inclusion of the construction of accommodation for the above workers in the development law under preparation.

6. Strategic time horizon: Infrastructure needs a 10–20 year horizon. The four-year electoral cycle is not sufficient to establish a strategy. The country needs cross-party and institutional agreement, perhaps even social legitimacy through a referendum or citizens’ resolutions, so that the plan can gain duration and continuity. Decisions with private economic criteria for planned projects at regional, interregional and national levels will accelerate the implementation of projects and prevent phenomena of non-transparency and networks of interdependence.

7. Demographic strategy and attraction to the Region: The desolation of the countryside and the flight of young people cannot be stopped with subsidies. A comprehensive plan is needed to make the region attractive with quality health and education services, infrastructure, cultural life, professional prospects and affordable housing.

Of course, we must never forget that the foundation of demographic policy is the support of the family and, above all, work with prospects. Only in this way will the trend of shrinkage be reversed and local development will be strengthened.