Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis took part in the Innovative Greeks digital conference, joining a question-and-answer session with the Chairman of SEV, Dimitris Papalexopoulos and the Chairwoman of Endeavor Greece, Costanza Sbokou Konstantakopoulou.
Dimitris Papalexopoulos: Thank you for joining us Prime Minister. It has been a recurring lament over decades that the Greek economy has been unable to benefit anywhere near as much as it could and should from the sizable and highly successful Greek diaspora. And it’s certainly not because of lack of interest or goodwill from Greeks abroad. The quality of the panelists we had the chance to witness a few minutes ago, who readily agreed to participate in this event, the fact that over 10,000 Greeks have already signed up to engage in the Innovative Greeks platform demonstrate this once again. So the problems are clearly deeper and more systemic.
So, I would put it to you that the timing is as good as it has ever been to break decisively with the past. Disruption is creating new opportunities. Access to technology is being democratized. Local ecosystems are growing, financing is more readily available, easy connectivity provides a big boost. The brain drain community that has painfully emerged over the past decade is actually in some ways an enabler and even the pandemic is useful in accelerating things. So your government and you personally have shown appreciation of those challenges and opportunities involved and have acted in this direction. So the question we would like to start off with is what do you think should be our level of ambition? Can we do plus 10% or can we think 10X? How can we transcend the infamous Greek reality and scale up meaningfully?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: First of all, Costanza and Dimitri, thank you very much for the opportunity you gave me to participate in what I understand is a very interesting online discussion. I gather that you have thousands of people participating from all over the world. And this I think is particularly encouraging, because it shows a level of engagement with what is happening in Greece, which in my mind is a clear sign of optimism regarding our ability to take the country forward in big leaps.
Our government is not a government that is focused on incremental change. Our ambitions are much more substantial. I think this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to totally transform the country, the fabric of its economy and the way we view ourselves, our relationship with the state, but also the opportunities we give to our people to grow and flourish.
And if I can just make a bridge with the organization that is sponsoring this online debate, can we turn the innovative Greeks into an innovative Greece? What is it that makes Greeks flourish abroad while when they return to Greece or those who stay in Greece, they feel constrained by a system that cannot unleash their degree of creativity? I think this is a fundamental question that we need to answer. And we need to be bold in the way we do things and think in a completely different manner. We are not going to change the country dramatically if we keep on doing things the same way as we did them in the past.
You mentioned the pandemic, which -in the midst of this horrific healthcare crisis- is also a tremendous opportunity to transform the way we engage with the public sector, to reprioritize public health as an important value but also as a policy priority, and at the same time to make sure that we unleash creative forces which are by nature disruptive. Just two examples, which I’m sure we may touch upon as the discussion continues: it was mentioned in the previous panel that Estonia at one point set the bar very high when it came to its own leadership in e-government. But I can tell you that what is happening right now in Greece in terms of the digital transformation of the state is completely groundbreaking. For years, we’ve been talking about facilitating the interaction between citizens and businesses with the state using technology, we’ve actually made it happen and there is still much more to do. But we’ve demonstrated that this is something that we actually can do.
Look at the way we deliver our vaccine program. It’s fully digital. We notify people through SMS. They book their appointment, if they need to change they go online and change it. And once they show up in one of the vaccination centers we’ve set up they’re treated with dignity and respect. And everyone seems very happy with the way we are rolling out this extremely complex process. I’m saying all this because it is particularly important if we want to really change the country and think in terms of 10X, rather than 10% incremental change, that we build a level of trust between the state, between the political elites and the citizens, which clearly was not there over I’d say many decades. And certainly that level of trust was actually shattered by the crisis. So I’m a big believer in trust as a social capital that drives countries forward. And I think during the pandemic, in spite of the great difficulties, we’ve taken important steps in that direction.
Costanza Sbokou Konstantakopoulou: Starting from 2017 not only the number of Greeks emigrating abroad stabilized but also the number of Greeks returning to their homeland increased. Last year almost 130,000 people returned and most of them are people with a higher education degree. So there are signs that we’re moving from brain drain to “brain regain”. What are your thoughts on how to accelerate that trend?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: As you know and many of our friends who follow this discussion know, a lot of young talented people had to leave Greece over the past decade in search of better opportunities. They left primarily because there were not enough jobs in Greece or the jobs that were offered did not satisfy the people who actually left Greece on various fronts. And I think it is very, very encouraging that many of those who have left are contemplating returning to Greece. And they will do so for various reasons. Obviously the Greek economy will need to create well-paying jobs that satisfy the ambitions of people who can actually choose to return to Greece, because they now have an opportunity to pursue employment at home.
So, creating new jobs in those fields where the country has a comparative advantage is particularly important. But it’s not just that. I think if someone decides to return to Greece after having spent many years abroad, they will not just look at the job they can get in Greece. They will also look at the broader context. They will look at issues such as quality of life, whether this is a truly meritocratic country. At the end of the day it’s going to be a vote of confidence in the long-term perspective and in the long-term ambitions of the country.
And I think the reason why many people are contemplating returning to Greece now is because they honestly believe -and I honestly believe the same thing- that we’ve turned the corner and that we’re at the beginning of a long-term growth cycle that can truly transform the country.
I do encourage Greeks abroad to be part of this new chapter of Greek history, because we need their skills. We need their innovative talent, we need their experiences from abroad. And at a time when maybe the scarcest form of capital is human capital, this talent pool that we have, the people who are living abroad and are looking to return to Greece, provides us with a significant competitive advantage.
And we might also want to make it easy for these people to return. That is why we’ve set up various tax schemes for people who have been tax residents abroad, if they choose to return to Greece they have favorable tax treatments. That is why we are reducing taxes on high-earners, abolishing the solidarity surcharge, reducing social security contributions, because at the end of the day, we want to make it more attractive for employees and for employers to pay good wages.
And we want to be competitive. If your after-tax income in Greece is in a position of significant disadvantage vis-a-vis another country, you may think twice about returning to Greece. So I do think, Costanza, that the stars are aligned for appealing to the Greek diaspora and asking them to seriously consider returning to Greece.
And in these days of mobile labor they may not even need to return permanently. I think one of the great advantages of Greece in the post-pandemic era is exactly related to the fact that it has been proven that you can work from anywhere. Greece offers a safe environment, excellent connectivity and fantastic quality of life. So, we are not just appealing to Greeks, but also to non-Greeks who want to relocate to Greece or to spend a significant amount of their time in Greece. We should be very ambitious, Greece should be the best place in the world to work from, whether you’re Greek or non-Greek. And this is opening up a whole new array of opportunities, also for the economy to create new jobs, attract new investments and grow significantly over the next years.
Dimitri Papalexopoulos: Let me perhaps add to what you said, Prime Minister, that there are several indications that your steps to invite non-Greeks to come to Greece as well, there is anecdotal evidence that there are several taking advantage of that.
Let me come back to brain drain if I can for a minute. Some of them will probably elect not to return and I’ve heard the argument made that maybe that’s a positive thing for Greece in some ways. How can we make the best of the ones who elect to stay there, despite everything? Can we do more?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Of course we can. And it is clear that not everyone is going to return. First of all, we want Greeks to be involved in Greek affairs and there are various ways of doing this. We made sure that we fulfilled our commitment to allow Greeks to vote from where they reside, rather than having to return to Greece, pay for a ticket and make the trip in order to participate in the electoral process. I think this is an important step to make sure that Greeks who live abroad become more engaged in the political process.
In an interconnected world we need to create networks that leverage the expertise of Greeks in various sectors where they can add significant value to the country. Let me just give you one example. We have incredibly talented Greeks, as you know, active in the healthcare sector. Many of them are very active in the United States, some of them leading companies that are also very much in the news because of their active participation in the vaccine effort against Covid. We have created, and I have created at my level, a network of Greeks or people who are related in one way or another to Greece who advise us on the next generation of healthcare and how we can take advantage of the momentous changes happening in the healthcare industry, in the fusion between healthcare and technology.
So one doesn’t necessarily need to return to Greece to add value to the country, as long as they have an interest in helping their country, either with their knowledge or with their capital, because we’re also appealing -obviously- to Greeks abroad to invest in the country. Be it a small investment, it could be a real estate investment, to much more significant productive investments. And we make the case to Greeks and non-Greeks alike that Greece is becoming an attractive investment destination.
Last but not least, I think civic engagement and non-profit work these days is particularly important. It’s another venue, another path through which Greeks who are abroad can become engaged in what is happening in Greece, based on their own personal sensitivities and interests.
Endeavor is a global nonprofit organization that has been established in Greece and is doing a fantastic job working with the Greek startup ecosystem and providing knowledge and support to aspiring young entrepreneurs. One can provide added value by serving as a mentor to a young company from abroad. It’s so easy to do it now, with the new communication technologies.
So there are numerous ways, if you’re interested, of actually helping the country. And by helping the country I don’t just mean helping the government, help businesses, help civic society and be part of this new vision that is being articulated about where the country is going.
And we should remember that this is an important year for the country. We’re celebrating 200 years since the beginning of the Greek Revolution. So it’s a good opportunity to look back and to assess the times when we were successful. But also to chart a course into the future. So this is not just about celebrating what we have achieved, and I think we’ve achieved a lot as a nation state, but also to really chart a course for an ambitious next decade.
Costanza Sbokou Konstantakopoulou: Despite the unprecedented circumstances we all went through and this disruption in almost all businesses, 2020 has been a great year for Greek innovation. We saw a record number of acquisitions for Greek technology companies that reached almost $500 million. The Greek startups raised the record level of capital. Endeavor estimates this number to be more than $350 million just in 2020. And at the same time, multiple research centers of excellence were established by large multinationals. However, innovation is not only about technology, it’s a mindset. It’s not just an aspiration goal, it’s the capacity to successfully adapt. New business models lead to diversified products or new services that accelerate growth. Innovation has become now maybe more relevant than any other period, because adversity sometimes forces societies to advance and accelerates change. So we have an opportunity here. A crisis that should not be wasted.
It is widely accepted that if we are to aim for sustainable long-term growth in a way that could lift living standards, then increasing our collective capacity to innovate is an imperative. This obviously touches a radical rethink of our educational system, better link between universities and business and exponentially upskilling and reskilling, more emphasis on R&D, efforts to help the companies scale up. In all this, governments have an important role to play. So what are your plans Mr Prime Minister? Where are your priorities for raising increased innovation capacity?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Well, where shall I start? You touched upon various very, very important themes. First of all, let me add my congratulations to those startup companies that have succeeded in taking the next step forward, because -as you pointed out- it is evidence that Greece now, after a lot of effort, has a vibrant ecosystem of startup companies, not just technology companies but companies that innovate in general. And it also has a vibrant venture capital scene with venture capital funds that have been co-funded by European funds. And this is only one indication of how the government can support innovation and the startup ecosystem.
So I’m very, very happy that during the crisis many Greeks discovered the beauty of entrepreneurship and that entrepreneurship is no longer a tarnished concept as it was maybe in previous decades and that it is something that actually young Greeks aspire to. Because as we know and as we discussed during the opening of our session, Greeks have been incredibly successful as innovators, as business creators abroad. Why shouldn’t this also happen in Greece? This is my personal passion, my personal vision, maybe because I spent most of my professional career in venture capital before I entered politics. I now see us at last catching up with what I was hoping to do maybe 15 years ago, when Greek society was maybe not ready, at the time.
I think it is very important that we are beginning to teach entrepreneurship at schools and it’s fascinating every time we engage our teenagers in innovative projects, virtual businesses or robotics competitions. It is fascinating how much genuine talent and enthusiasm is exuded through these processes. And I think our young generation is incredibly talented and once they go to university in Greece we need to make sure, as you pointed out, that universities are much more connected with real life and real businesses.
For those who don’t go to university, we need to make sure that we give them the necessary vocational training and opportunities and technical education that they can also aspire to be able to be successful -and why not to innovate and create businesses. As far as technology is concerned, we do know that our public universities are producing incredibly talented and well-trained young graduates. I think that is also why a lot of foreign companies are looking to come to Greece to set up innovation centers, because they know that they can tap into a pool of human capital that is hardworking, ambitious and very, very talented.
This is happening not just in Athens. It is happening in Thessaloniki, it is happening in Ioannina, it is happening in Heraklion, it is happening in Chania. It’s happening in cities that have universities with a strong technical background. I think this is incredibly encouraging. And of course there are many other ways that we need to foster and strengthen innovation. Dear Dimitri, as the President of SEV you know that businesses need to invest more in R&D, because a lot of the innovation is privately driven and we’ve given additional tax incentives to private businesses to invest more in R&D.
And, of course, we also need to streamline our public funding for research by setting up also technology centers of excellence. We are -with the Deputy Minister for innovation- launching a very ambitious project, taking over an abandoned factory close to Piraues to create a true innovation hub in Athens that will fuse research and startup activities.
So this is not a real estate project in itself, but it’s an opportunity to create a concentrated ecosystem that will foster innovation. And of course we need to let public universities, we need to let them free to cooperate with the private sector and make sure that they establish these links which in the past, unfortunately, were considered anathema by many, which is a very distorted way of looking at how higher public education needs to function.
And of course one should never forget that innovation, as you pointed out Costanza, is not just about technology. You can have extremely innovative companies that simply reinvent basic business models. There is probably going to be a technological component to any innovation, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that there needs to be a patent and you need to invent something either in terms of hardware or in terms of software. It also means using existing tools in a different manner.
So, I think the opportunities are really significant. But what I most appreciate is this buzz coming out of the startup ecosystem and the number of young people who -rather than seeking employment maybe in the public sector as was the case maybe 10, 15 years ago- are thinking about becoming entrepreneurs, becoming innovators. I’m not saying that we don’t need talented people in the public sector, we will always need highly talented people in the public sector and we seek to hire them through purely meritocratic procedures, but this level of ambition that you can do anything, you can set up a successful startup out of Greece, is something that I see for the first time. Frankly, it is tremendously encouraging and (I am) highly optimistic.
Dimitris Papalexopoulos: You’ve opened up, through your answer, a series of further questions and if you allow us we will stick with innovation for a bit longer. Let me perhaps focus a little more on education and skills. I think, as you pointed out, our universities have a long, positive tradition in the vitally important areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics – STEM. Yet, in a country today where 42% of young people have a university education and unemployment still exceeds 15%, over one third of Greek companies tell us every day that they have a hard time finding the right people to hire.
So how do we reconcile this apparent contradiction? Is it about scaling up knowledge of data science and modernizing our STEM curriculum? Is it a question of scaling up? Or is it maybe more about the soft skills of the 21st century? Creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, the four C’s that are increasingly thought of as key components of modern education. Could you share some more thoughts on what we should be doing on the education and upskilling side?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I think it’s probably both. There are lots of things that we still need to do in terms of our public education system. Essentially starting with kindergarten, looking at the way our schools function, the curriculum, the way we teach our kids those skills which we know are so important in the 21st century and then what is it that they actually learn at university? How do they actually choose what to study? I consider that to be of paramount importance and one of the legislative changes that we introduced, Dimitri, in the recent law we passed on higher education is exactly looking at this, maybe encouraging our 17- or 18-year-olds to slightly limit their choice of schools where they apply to, in order for them to have a higher probability to study something that they really care for and love.
I don’t believe in the value of a degree simply for the sake of obtaining a university degree if you end-up studying something that you have zero interest in. And we also know that the rate of dropouts, the students that don’t graduate if they end up in a school where they simply don’t care about what they study, is high.
So, we need to look at essentially reengineering our entire education system, starting from our schools. And that is why these soft skills, which we’re beginning to tentatively introduce in our curriculum, are so important. Education is no longer about memorizing knowledge. Any piece of information is freely available. It’s about critical thinking and it’s about learning how to express yourself, learning how to write, learning how to cooperate, learning how to be able to overcome difficulties, to be resilient.
And all these are skills that we need to teach our kids, starting with our schools. Obviously we also teach our kids at home but we need to teach these skills at school. And that involves a fundamental reassessment of our public education system. And it’s going to take time. These are not easy changes. When it comes to our universities, but also schools, evaluation is obviously particularly important. I’ve been rather unapologetic in terms of explaining to our universities that a certain component of funding will be tied to independent assessment of their performance.
And of course there are aspects and fields where we know that there will be a greater demand, such as data sciences, which obviously need to be further strengthened and we need to increase our capacity in those fields.
Then of course there is the issue of lifelong training, of acquiring skills post-university, of re-training, of what we call upskilling or reskilling, where the private sector can also add significant value. How do you convert a STEM graduate, who may have studied mathematics, into a programmer, and what sort of additional training and certification can you give to such a person in order to use their fundamental scientific knowledge in a more productive direction?
And I need to point out that there are significant European funds also available through what we call the Recovery and Resilience fund that we intend to direct into that priority of strengthening our labor force and making sure that especially our young people -but also citizens that have significant work experience- can acquire new skills that will increase the probability of leading a successful professional career.
Dimitris Papalexopoulos: Mr Prime Minister because you threw down the gauntlet to the private sector, justifiably on two issues: both insufficient R&D and indirectly not investing enough in upskilling our people, investing in developing our people. I think the statistics clearly show that you are right and this is an area of responsibility we have to work in as companies, as the private sector.
Having said that, it is partly a reflection of the structure of the Greek economy. So, 62% of the workforce is employed by small companies. Or to look at it inversely, only 12% of the Greek labor force is in companies of over 250 people each, versus 33% in the European Union. So the question is -it’s obviously not easy- but how do we shift the structure? So as to increase the number of companies that have the critical mass to compete internationally, to invest in R&D, to develop people?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Yes, we need bigger companies and there are two ways to grow a company: one is to grow organically, which is really the company’s job, the other way is to grow through collaborations, mergers and acquisitions. And we probably need a package to make these types of transactions more attractive, in order to create the necessary scale.
But I may sort of go slightly against the trend to argue that sometimes small can also be beautiful, in the sense that you can see companies that may be small -look at, for example, a small cozy, family-run hotel that is focusing on sustainability and offering real quality to its visitors- being a very successful business in its own right.
So, it doesn’t mean that all companies by definition need to be big to be successful. For example look at the Covid experience, where interestingly enough a lot of smaller companies who actually knew their customers well, regional shops, if you gave them the right tools they actually adapted easier than larger companies that were tied up in complicated supply chains.
So not everything in the Greek economy is going to be big. There are companies and business ventures that may be very successful and provide a very decent income to their owners and employees by staying relatively small. For example, a quality restaurant may never be able to grow because that’s what a good chef can do.
But of course the other aspect is that clearly in areas such as manufacturing, where we can do much more to add scale, we need to be certain that we provide the right framework for incentives in order for companies to grow. And sometimes this growth has to come not just through organic growth, it has to come through mergers, through maybe accepting private capital to invest in the company. And maybe sometimes the owner of a company may choose to have a smaller share in a bigger company than a bigger share in a smaller company. And knowing the psyche of Greek entrepreneurs and Greek business people, you know Dimitri that this is not always easy to accept.
Dimitris Papalexopoulos: Well aware.
Costanza Sbokou Konstantakopoulou: One last question on this topic before we move to FDI. How can Greece capitalize the opportunities for international partnerships like those with Pfizer, Microsoft, Amazon? In other words, how can Greece become a regional innovation hub?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I think it’s already happening and it’s happening because all these companies took a hard look at Greece, compared the opportunity to invest in Greece with the opportunity to invest in other countries and decided that it’s worthwhile to invest in Greece. And for many of these companies that would have been inconceivable a few years ago.
There are various reasons why this is happening. I think these big multinational companies feel comfortable with a government, I don’t like to necessarily use the term pro-business, but a government that is reliable and keeps its word and is committed to making the life of foreign investors easier. And of course, as we discussed, I think they appreciated the intrinsic competitive advantages of the country, with access to human capital being a very important one.
So sometimes you just need a couple of big investments to act as a “snowball effect” and to actually become part of the international investment map. I think this is already happening in Greece. People are looking at Greece for investment, not necessarily just in those sectors where they always wanted to invest in Greece, such as tourism. Look at the Pfizer example, they set up a big data center in Thessaloniki. And they’re not the only example of companies that are looking to invest in data science, employ talented Greeks and pay good salaries. Pfizer is only one example of a company that has actually done that.
There will be numerous opportunities for companies to look at Greece. Other companies may look at Greece as a regional hub for shared services, what we used to call back-office, because of Greece’s excellent connectivity. We shouldn’t forget that Greece is centrally located in terms of being close to the Balkans, being close to the Middle East, being closer than other countries to East Africa, being closer to India, which in my mind is a completely new untapped market for Greek companies, but also for investors from India to come to Greece.
So our geographic location is a big advantage to also attract companies that are looking to set up a regional headquarters. This is also beginning to happen.
Dimitris Papalexopoulos: (…) There are those that worry that the economic cost of the pandemic risks blunting your government’s willingness to push ahead with needed reforms. What do you tell them and what reforms are you prioritizing in order to attract foreign direct investment?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: First of all, I would tell those who are concerned about us deviating from our reform path to look at our record. We have passed more than 150 pieces of legislation since we took over, many of them in line with our electoral commitment to drastically change the country and many of them related to our priority of attracting investment -domestic and foreign- to Greece. So, under no circumstance has the pandemic derailed our primary task.
Of course, all countries will be hit with a significant recession in 2020, but this is a systemic shock to all economies. And if anything, as we discussed, it may also present Greece with opportunities to rebrand itself and it also opens up new paths for opportunities that were not present before the pandemic.
But we know what foreign investors are really looking at: a stable political environment, I think we can guarantee that, we have an absolute majority in parliament, we can take decisions quickly, we are not engaged in coalition discussions. I think this is an advantage for the country at this given point. We are almost halfway through our term, we are doing rather well in the polls, which means that in spite of the difficulties Greeks recognize that we are moving the country in the right direction. And of course, if you look under the important topic of political risk and political stability, the fact that the country is no longer a European outlier, no longer a problematic child is very, very important. Greece is punching above its weight in Europe now. Nobody is talking to Greece or about Greece in the context of us having to deal with a debt crisis or that reforms are not happening.
We’ve left all this behind. And it happened very, very quickly, and it is particularly important for Greece because you know how much bad press we received for almost a decade. So this rebranding happened very quickly, and I think it is particularly important for the image of the country as a whole.
Then you look at issues such as regulation. We are, for example, as we speak, passing -I’m sure you’re aware- a new legislation on public procurement, in line with the European directives, simplifying issues regarding public procurement which made it too complicated and too difficult for companies to participate in tenders.
We’ve done a significant amount of work in terms of reducing the tax burden. We are simplifying regulation across the board. We have managed to unblock important investments such as the old Hellinikon Airport, which seemed like the gordian knot, nobody could actually deal with them. And it is moving forward.
If you look at what’s happening in the real estate market in Greece, across the board, I think we’re just at the beginning of a long-term upward trend. And if you also look at how this, all this, is going to be reflected in the Doing Business indices, once they are published, I think we will be very pleasantly surprised. Obviously these are data that many international investors look at when they decide where to invest.
And of course, just to complete (the circle) from where we started, we also have lots of Greeks in the diaspora who may pitch in and amplify our story. And it is important for this story to be told abroad. I think that anyone who means well about the country is happy when the country is doing well. And it is sad when the country is not doing well. I leave political preferences completely aside and I think there are reasons to honestly believe -regardless of what people vote- and I think sometimes the Greeks who live abroad have a much clearer perspective of what’s happening in Greece. We sometimes get bogged down into party politics way too much, but if you objectively look at Greece from abroad, the country is moving in the right direction.
Costanza Sbokou Konstantakopoulou: From the Endeavor Greece network we saw two record-breaking exits last year, Microsoft acquired Softomotive and Delivery Hero acquired InstaShop. At the same time, your government has introduced many incentive schemes to enhance Greece’s competitiveness as a place to live and work. You mentioned before tax cuts for entrepreneurs and employees that wish to relocate, tax benefits for foreign retirees, the non-dom program and most recently a regime for the establishment of family offices in Greece, which -if you allow me- maybe has some room for improvement in order to compete better internationally.
So, Greece is in the center of global attention, bearing the promise for a prosperous economy. How can we make Greece a significant destination for tech investments? In other words and in a more general sense, what is the narrative, Mr. Prime Minister?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Well, I think the successes you presented are very, very important in terms of showing to the global tech world that there are opportunities in Greece that are worth exploring and possibly worth investing in.
You know how a vibrant tech ecosystem works and I think we have the foundations to actually do that, attract more capital and make sure that companies grow out of Greece. And hopefully the successful Greek tech companies are not just going to look at the Greek market, the Greek market is a springboard, you compete in a global market. But what we want is for them to start in Greece and retain a significant presence in Greece, in order to create jobs in Greece and offer employment opportunities in Greece.
Maybe at some point they will need to move abroad and establish their headquarters elsewhere and that is perfectly fine, if that is what needs to happen for them to grow, but we still want them to retain their Greek roots.
But I think there’s also another aspect of the tech ecosystem which is worth exploring, what we call the digital nomads, people who can literally work from anywhere. Sometimes they are self-employed or work in small teams. The pandemic has proven that you can actually work from anywhere, as we previously discussed. And those people, we already see them looking at Greece and spending more time in Greece, investing in real estate, investing in setting up maybe a small legal foundation in order for them to do business. This is also another very important “market” we need to address, because the nature of work is changing.
And there, I think, we have a unique competitive advantage, which is a combination of the quality of life, which is so important and is going to become even more important; excellent connectivity, we are one of the first countries to launch 5G auctions; a safe country, the pandemic proved we -in spite of all the criticism- have a good healthcare system. And you don’t actually need to work in Athens, you can work from an island, you can work from a nice village in the mountains and be very happy, live a very fulfilling life and contribute to the Greek economy. So this is an important aspect of the tech industry that we also need to focus on.
Dimitris Papalexopoulos: (…) Prime Minister, what would be your parting message to the over 10,000 people who have already signed up and are following Innovative Greeks?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Continue to engage with the country, follow what’s happening in Greece, look for opportunities in Greece, help us change the country by contributing to Greece’s success. And as we discussed, there are many ways of actually doing this.
Some of you will choose to return to Greece for the next chapter of your life. But for those of you who will choose to live abroad, you will always retain an interest in what is happening in Greece. And as Dimitri pointed out, there are many, many ways of actually helping the country and be part of the success story, of what we’re trying to do. And again if we could turn innovative Greeks into innovative Greece, that would be a tremendous success and I think we would all be very, very happy and very proud if we could actually succeed in doing that.
