Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-10-26

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Germans are interested in investments in Greece, Dr. Felbermayr (Ifo) tells ANA

[02] Kountoura represents Greece in 18th World Economic Forum Leaders WIL Women

[01] Germans are interested in investments in Greece, Dr. Felbermayr (Ifo) tells ANA

"As long as Greece is not on the front page of German newspapers, this has a positive impact on economic relations," he underlined and added: "A lot of people take for granted the possibility of cooperation with the current left government. The fact that the political situation is stable, of course, is significant, it helps, but it is not enough by itself."

Asked what Greece can do to attract investments, he said that "the indices of the World Bank show that in recent months there is an upward trend," but "Greece needs to increase its productivity in order to prosper. For this reason, a number of measures, such as changes in labour relations, are required."

He estimated that the current difficult situation is "a result of the wrong decision taken in 2010" and wondered whether "the decision to stay in the eurozone was a good one or it had better leave." As he said, himself and the Ifo believe that it would probably be better for everyone, the creditors, the German banks and Greece, to leave the eurozone provided that this was followed by a debt write off, as it was the case with Argentina."

The Professor stressed that what Greece needs is a real viable model so that it can tell Europe: "This is our plan for a new Greece and we are asking for your support."

However, he is not in favour of abolishing the euro, but "the eurozone should be a free union which a member state, under specific conditions, can provisionally abandon and return to its national currency and then come back again."

In order for that to succeed, Felbermayr underlined that the withdrawal should be coordinated and the process be monitored, so that a country can return to the eurozone only when the needed structural reforms have been implemented.

The full interview is available at ANA's website.

[02] Kountoura represents Greece in 18th World Economic Forum Leaders WIL Women

Kountoura referred to the role of women in leadership positions in economic, business, political and social activity. She also referred to the high performance of Greek tourism and the strategy for strengthening the competitiveness of the Greek the tourist product, and analyzed the policies and operational activities over the last two years to protect tourism from external factors and international developments.

The 18th Global Women in Leadership (WIL) Economic Forum was attended by more than 500 business leaders, institutional representatives and policy makers in order to discuss and cooperate in developing policies for the economic empowerment of women.

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