PM: Turning crisis into opportunity

Prime minister George Papandreou once again urged Greeks to turn the crisis into an opportunity, addressing a development and competitiveness ministry event on Wednesday on the plan for extroversion of the country.

He said the government was seeking to set new bases with young people and businesses that will be the rule, rather than the exception to the rule, in a dynamic, developmental effort.

He said that many institutional structural changes have been made in 2010 and the effort will continue more dynamically in 2011 for a Greece that will be optimistic, will have no fear, and will face the future without loans and surveillance, while he also noted the government’s new strategy aimed at green development and making use of agricultural production and tourism.

Greece, the premier stressed, has immense potential, adding that it is facing a crisis “not because we were unable to make a better country, but because we had the abilities and did not exploit them”.

He added that “we must create a different Greece and be optimistic that we can achieve even miracles, not only for political reasons but also in order to attract investments and increase our country’s credibility”.

“We must turn the crisis into an opportunity,” Papandreou said, and stressed the importance of initiatives being undertaken by entrepreneurs themselves, adding that the state will contribute to such an effort by eliminating long-standing problems.