Bad habits drive investors away
Greece, currently locked in its sixth year of recession, desperately needs a flow of fresh capital into its anemic economy. Without cash, in the form of foreign investments, the debt-wracked economy will never manage to enter a growth trajectory.
The good news is that there are signs that some investors out there are interested in putting their money in the country. The bad news is that our bad habits are driving many of them away. Some here treat investors with skepticism, constantly raising bureaucratic obstacles, and many investments are caught up as a result in a sea of permits and requests for palm-greasing.
Greece is by no means the only country out there seeking foreign capital, of course, but investors can easily move to a different country with a more friendly environment.
If we really want to attract cash, we ought to make life here easier for potential investors instead of treating them with distrust and hostility, as we so often have over the past 30 years. The country’s economic survival is at stake, after all.
