The crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the European Union’s sizable Recovery Fund have opened up great opportunities for our country. Kathimerini asked the top chief executives of Greek companies for their views on the key question of what it will take to truly restart the economy.
Αmerica has great confidence that the Greek economy, under the leadership of the Mitsotakis government, will quickly return to its pre-Covid pattern of rapid economic growth.
Big results require big ambitions, as Heraclitus famously said. The sheer scale of the crisis that Europe is facing means that we have also thought big with our recovery plan.
Prem Watsa, the founder, chairman, CEO and largest shareholder of Fairfax Financial Holdings, is especially bullish about the Greek economy’s prospects and is clearly happy the country has opened up its economy following the coronavirus lockdown.
Greece has proven that it has potential, and now it is incumbent upon the country to use the momentum to attract investment in fields beyond tourism.
There are enterprises in Europe and the US that are inclined to invest in a startup in Greece as long as it fulfills their investment criteria.
Between February 26, the day the first coronavirus case was reported in our country, and March 22, when the government announced the coronavirus curfew, we had plenty to think about, and even more to do.
Nothing speeds up human history like a pandemic. Everything changed overnight. Across industries, companies were forced to move online and change the way they plan, produce, operate, sell, and serve, while governments launched online facilities to support citizens.
Following the gradual lifting of the measures imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, uncertainty is the main feature of the new phase we are going through.
The American College of Greece (ACG) experienced the radically disruptive impact of COVID-19 in our three education divisions – Pierce, Deree, Alba – each of which serves a distinctive set of constituents.
On a global scale, the healthcare crisis has brought us against an unforeseen situation. Today we are at a crucial point, where both the society and the economy are trying to recuperate from the uncertainty of the previous months. The state as well as businesses are now responsible for driving the country towards the next day, restoring normality and making the most out of all the lessons learnt.
I will not refer to facts such as that Attica Group is the biggest ferry operator in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, that is the 8th largest ferry company in Europe, that we operate a fleet of 32 vessels and that we are the largest employer of Greek seafarers.
The COVID-19 crisis has had unprecedented, rapid knock-on effects on the global economy, the exact extent of which cannot be determined as long as uncertainty remains on the evolution of the pandemic.
COVID-19 is not simply an economic crisis, but a disruptive event changing normality as we knew it.
There is something almost everyone can agree on: The country needs investments.
In the last three months, we’ve lived through the kind of ordeal that happens perhaps once in a lifetime.
