Overdue plan to cut red tape
The Development Ministry is putting together a draft bill that will drastically reduce the steps required to set up a company, in a much overdue plan, as bureaucracy remains one the of country’s biggest problems. Greece was ranked in position No 96 out of 181 countries on an international competitiveness ranking prepared by World Bank last week, scoring poorly on the number of steps required to set up a business. Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), Montenegro and Kazakhstan all scored better than Greece. Ministry sources said changes being prepared will allow entrepreneurs to set up a limited liability company after a single visit to a chamber of commerce that will require 300 euros and obtaining two signatures. Currently, the same procedure requires 15 administrative steps plus trips to tax offices, chambers of commerce and some 1,700 euros. Procedures currently take 19 days. It is not clear when the draft bill will be submitted to Parliament or when it is expected to come into effect. The World Bank report, which examines conditions that facilitate and obstruct business activity, gave Greece a lower score than almost all of its European Union peers. Greece also garnered one of the lowest scores in the world when it comes to its heavily regulated business start-up procedures by World Bank. According to European Commission figures, bureaucracy costs the economy almost 7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) every year versus 4.6 percent in Spain and Italy. The EU average stands at 3.5 percent.
