Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-06-28

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM addresses Parliament during debate on public administration

[02] Greek FinMin announces dialogue over the country's pension system

[03] Greek manufacturers cautious over 2005 outlook

[01] PM addresses Parliament during debate on public administration

"Greece will not turn back", the prime minister said and stressed that the government is ready to tackle problems and to bring about changes and reforms.

"Changes have begun, reforms are under way. Constant effort, persistence, consistency and a joint effort are necessary to enable us to build a responsible and reliable social state which shall be socially just and which shall respect citizens. We have undertaken this commitment," Karamanlis said.

The prime minister referred to statements made in past years by PASOK's current leader George Papandreou and members of the then government about commissions, piranhas, a second division state, vested interests and exploitation by the state for the benefit of those in power, saying that "you were responsible for these phenomena. What are your positions now?"

Karamanlis went on to say that "today, we are being called on to face partisanship, bureaucracy and corruption left behind by PASOK" and accused PASOK of being governed by confusion, contradiction and an absolute vacuum.

Referring to the government's targets in the public administration sector, Karamanlis said they include the restriction of bureaucracy, electronic governance and the upgrading of services provided to citizens.

The prime minister mentioned the creation of the "Central Committee for Simplifying Procedures" which is functioning at a speedy rate and preparing new reforms to combat bureaucracy.

He also referred to measures such as the programme - amounting to about â¬14.5 million - to support about 3,000 small and medium-size businesses in every region to enable them to acquire informatics equipment.

As regards the issue of transparency and good management in public administration, Karamanlis said checks revealed "2,800 cases of olive oil producers who had died and who were still receiving subsidies."

Karamanlis also focused on the immigration issue, saying that the relevant bill will be brought before Parliament on Wednesday "to secure for every alien the unimpeded exercising of his rights and his full accession to society."

[02] Greek FinMin announces dialogue over the country's pension system

Speaking to reporters, after an inner cabinet meeting, Alogoskoufis stressed that a discussion in Parliament on Monday highlighted a wider problem in the country's pension system and noted that a previous government's legislation, aimed to resolve the problem, had great weaknesses since it rolled over the cost of funding the country's Social Security Institution (IKA) to the public sector and the state budget.

"This is an issue that must be dealt with a long-term dialogue, as the government has said again in the past. No one can deny a dialogue over the pension system, the problem is there and a dialogue must proceed calmly to find out what it needs and what needs to be done to deal with this big problem for the country," the Greek minister said.

Commenting on a draft amendment tabled by ND deputy Miltiades Evert and supported by PASOK, the main opposition political party, Alogoskoufis said the government has approved a draft legislation currently under discussion in parliament, and stressed that the government's plan would resolve a pension problem in the banking sector without burdening IKA or the public sector since Greek banks would pay the cost.

[03] Greek manufacturers cautious over 2005 outlook

The report, titled "Greek manufacturing -estimates for 2004 and expectations for 2005", showed that small and medium-sized enterprises -with assets less than 30 million euros- were much more optimistic compared with bigger ones -with assets more than 30 million euros- excluding exports.

Sales are expected to rise by 6.3 percent this year (from 9.5 pct in 2004), while exports are expected to increase by 11.5 percent from 15.6 percent over the same period, respectively.

These forecasts were possibly based on a weakened euro currency during the first quarter of 2005, with producers' prices for the external market remaining stable during the same period.

Greek industries are planning a 19.1 percent increase in investments this year (up from 18.6 percent in 2004), with optimism coming mainly from small- and medium-sized enterprises. Larger enterprises, however, said they would contain their investment activity.

Employment remains stable and expected to rise by 0.2 percent this year from a -1.2 percent in 2004, while labour cost is forecast to increase by 3.3 percent from 1.5 pct in 2004.

Gross profits are forecast to rise by 6.8 pct this year, from 6.7 pct in 2004, and pre-tax profits to increase by 16.8 percent from 4.2 pct over the same period, respectively.

The manufacturing sector welcomes a government-sponsored new development law in the country, with 40.6 percent of company officials saying it would contribute in strengthening competitiveness and investments, and another 20.1 percent it would have only insignificant impact on the market.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises are showing more interest in submitting the investment plans with the new development law. A 23.7 percent of manufacturing companies said that lowering tax factors would strongly boost competitiveness and investments, 23.9 percent said there would be no significant impact and 7.5 percent said the impact would be negative.

More than 20 percent of Greek manufacturing production was exported in 2004. Around 18 percent of manufacturing companies said rising oil prices was the most serious development in 2004.

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