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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-12-26
CONTENTS
[01] Government tries to put a halt to unemployment, says Alt. Labour
Minister Antonopoulou
[02] Economy Minister Papadimitriou: Tax reduction on enterprises does
not attract investments
[01] Government tries to put a halt to unemployment, says Alt. Labour
Minister Antonopoulou
Our aim is to heal the wounds that unemployment and poverty opened
to the society and to set the economy on a course of fair growth,
said Alternate Labour Minister Rania Antonopoulou in her article in
the Sunday edition of Avghi newspaper.
For us (government) there is no growth and improvement of the Greek
economy's competitiveness without the creation of job positions and the
fair distribution of revenues. The enterprises' competitiveness does not
only depend on the salaries it also depends on the overall production
cost and on the demand. In this context the defence of the work's world
interests and the support of the vulnerable social groups are at the
forefront of the Greek government's negotiations and this makes this
government different in comparison with its predecessors.
The SYRIZA-Independent Greeks government struggles in practice to put
a halt to unemployment and to the impoverishment of the Greek society,
to fairly allocate the burdens of the fiscal adjustment, to restore
the collective labour contracts and to set on solid foundations the
country's productive restructuring" she said adding that the "promotion
of full-time employment is at the heart of our programme's philosophy".
[02] Economy Minister Papadimitriou: Tax reduction on enterprises does
not attract investments
The three main conditions that Greece must fulfill to attract healthy
business investments are transparency in tenders' procedure, strong
state operation framework and financing from the banks, said Economy and
Development Minister Dimitris Papadimitriou in his article in Kathimerini
newspaper adding that the reduction of tax rates on enterprises in EU
countries did not bring investments.
In his article "Tax reduction and growth" underlined that in countries as
Finland, Slovenia and Spain where there was reduction of the tax rates
was observed reduction and in the investments. Reduction in investments
was also recorded in countries with low tax rates (Croatia, Poland, and
Romania)". On the contrary, in the most advanced economically countries
(Germany, France, Belgium, and Austria) despite the high tax rates
throughout the period of the crisis, there was not decline but small
rise of their investments to GDP. Particularly in Greece in 2006 the
businesses tax rate was 29 percent and gradually fell to 20 percent in
the period 2011-2012, this however did not prevent the percentage of
investments to GDP to drop from 23,7 percent in 2006 to 12,6 percent
in 2012 which is indicative that no reduction in businesses' taxation
guarantees investments, he stressed. The minister also referred to
a recent OECD report in which, among others, points out that "the tax
burdening of a country is one of many, but not the most important, factor
that is examined by the potential investors that weigh up their investing
decisions. Very important for the potential investors are matters related
with the cost and the danger linked with macroeconomic or business
conditions, the cost of compliance with the laws, the regulations and the
administrative practices, the size of the market, the labour conditions
and above all the profit opportunities linked with specific locations".
Concluding, Papadimitriou noted that firstly the reduction of enterprises
tax rates has a minor effect on the attraction of investments because it
also contributes in a competitive race downwards of the European economy
that only benefits the major multinational businesses. Secondly, for
Greece which offers a plethora of opportunities for profit from specific
locations (due to the infrastructures, tourism, energy and transport)
and is under huge fiscal pressure, the economy does not need this kind
of policy. What the country needs is transparent tender procedures,
strong state framework operation and financing from banks with economic
criteria because on these are based the healthy business investments.
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