Limited adjustments will be needed in “Greece 2.0” due to the rescheduling of investment plans from the energy crisis and inflation, said Deputy Minister of Finance, Theodoros Skylakakis, at the 7th Delphi Economic Forum.
As Mr. Skylakakis explained, the Recovery Fund designed taking into account crisis conditions. Almost half (investments through loans) are made to automatically adapt to the new data, while the rest of the program will have reasonable adjustments. Thus, the overall design and philosophy will not be affected.
Instead, Recovery Fund categories, such as the green transition and energy investment, will accelerate. In addition, he revealed that, in cooperation with the Hellenic Banking Association, an electronic platform will soon be launched where the investment plans, which are implemented through loans of the Recovery Fund, will be submitted, evaluated and audited.
As far as new Development Law, the philosophy remains the same, ie incentives for investment by reducing the cost of financing and the tax burden and not through large subsidies. Regarding the public investment program, Mr. Skylakakis stated that this is accelerating and revealed that in 2022 the payments will reach 11 billion euros, from 5 billion in 2021, without taking into account the part of loans.
For his part, the Managing Partner of Grant Thornton Greece, Vassilis Kazas described the Recovery Fund as a well-designed and effective tool, where plans of 15 billion euros have already been submitted and new ones are expected in the near future. However, he believes that there will be revaluations of investment plans, without this creating significant changes. Mr. Kazas also stressed the importance of information in order to understand the benefits of available tools, such as the parallel use of the Recovery Fund and the new Development Law, as well as subsidies.
The General Manager of Wholesale Banking of Alpha Bank, Giannis Emiris, gave great emphasis to the investment gap created during the ten-year economic crisis, where the proper utilization of the Recovery Fund is a unique opportunity, not only to fill this gap, but also to upgrade the infrastructure of Greece, where the country lags behind. Banks can contribute both through loans and through sponsorships to attract and increase investment. Referring to Alpha Bank, Mr. Emiris reminded that the Bank proceeded with a capital increase of 800 million euros in 2021 only to meet the largest financing needs, due to the utilization of the Recovery Fund.
THE Marios Psaltis, Managing Partner of PwC Greece stressed that the Recovery Fund is coming at the right time in order to stop divestment and accelerate private investment. This is because the moment comes when macroeconomic figures improve, the Greek economy stabilizes and taxation is reduced. The Recovery Fund also creates a growth multiplier through grants to small and medium-sized enterprises.
THE Theodoros Tzouros, Executive Gen. Manager, Head of Corporate and Investment Banking of Piraeus Bank referred to the new four-year business plan of the Bank, which provides for disbursements of 27 billion euros to households and businesses. Of this amount, a large part concerns investments of over 5 billion euros under the Recovery Fund.
The CEO of Optima Bank, Mr. Dimitris Kyparissis, ie the representative of one of the 6 Greek banks participating in the Recovery Fund, underlined the good planning and efficiency of the program, which can be accelerated with additional incentives, such as taxation. Incentives should be targeted, taking into account the current economic climate and reinforcing climate targets such as green energy.
The panel of the 7th Delphi Forum, entitled “Recovery Fund in Greece: Progress and Challenges”, was coordinated by the journalist of the newspaper “To Vima” and Reporter.gr, Angelos Kovaios.
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