SEV head warns Greece will be left without major enterprises
Greece is running the risk of being left without any major enterprises, exports or production, the president of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV), Theodoros Fessas, warned on Thursday.
The head of Greek industrialists stressed that investments in Greece have diminished by no less than 62 percent in the last seven years, with manufacturing and industrial activity paying the price of the economic recession.
“It is only with a wave of productive investments that we will stop burdening the real economy and labor with taxes on taxes and limp reforms that are to no one’s benefit in the end,” Fessas eloquently stated. The main aim, the SEV leader added, will have to be tax incentives primarily for financially beneficial investments, such as in the fields of innovation, export-oriented manufacturing activities and sevices.
The Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE) struck a similar note on Thursday, calling for a policy that will deal with issues such as stabilizing the tax framework, reducing bureaucracy and upgrading public infrastructures.
A survey by the SEV Observatory showed that its Business Activity Facilitation Index declined significantly this year from 2014 due to excessive taxation, high social security contributions and red tape. As the vice president of Aegean Airlines, Eftychios Vassilakis, said, the 1,000-euro bonus the airline gave to some of its employees cost Aegean 1,280 euros, while the workers received between 520 and 680 euros due to various taxes and deductions.
