Structural reforms key to Greece’s recovery, Mitsotakis tells FT

Greece needs to embark on structural reforms in order to restore market confidence, conservative opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose New Democracy party is leading opinion polls, has told the Financial Times in an interview published Wednesday.

“It’s not just a question of consolidating fiscal policy because, if anything, fiscal policy has been too tight. It is also a question of really believing in implementing structural reforms, making Greece more competitive, changing the overall business climate, bringing in significant amounts of foreign investment but also mobilizing domestic investment,” Mitsotakis told the FT.

If his party wins the next election, Mitsotakis said, he will push forward with two of the country’s biggest projects – together valued at about 11 billion euros – that have stalled on bureaucratic and legal wranglings: developing the former international airport at Elliniko south of Athens and the Skouries gold mine in northern Greece. Canadian mining company Eldorado Gold last year suspended investment at its mines following a dispute over permits.