«I think it is now clear that the collective benefit of a bold reform path is what we are seeing: It is the 6% growth, it is the deceleration of unemployment, it is more investment, it is the gradual improvement in wages, and it is the surplus that this growth creates, so that we can make serious social policy,» Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a discussion with Boston Consulting Group Director Vassilis Antoniadis during an event organized by the Georgetown and Harvard University Alumni Associations in Greece. He also stressed that there is no growth without an increase in living standards for all and that the challenge is for this decade to be the decade of a great leap forward. Regarding the elections, he described the goal of self-reliance in the second ballot as absolutely achievable.
«We now have tangible results and evidence that what we planned we have been able to do and deliver, despite facing a series of very large exogenous crises, which certainly made our lives more difficult. Some of them, I believe, we were able to turn them into a substantial opportunity to run even faster with ideas and projects that we had already launched,» the Prime Minister added.
He also pointed out that «for many people it is surprising that today the Greek economy is growing much faster than the European average. This is true not only for ’21 but also for ’22, it will be true for ’23. And I think the big challenge is to be able to keep this distance from the European average with a growth that is sustainable but also has very specific qualitative characteristics.
He added: «these qualitative characteristics also hide my vision for the Greece of 2030. That is a growth that is outward-looking, innovative, environmentally friendly and fair. Fair in the sense that at a time when the forces of populism are still present - we must understand that populism does not grow in a vacuum - there are real concepts and real issues that concern large parts of society, which we must address in a meaningful way.».
He also stressed that for him «there is no growth without an increase in the standard of living for everyone, especially for the low-paid, because in our country wages are still low compared to the European average. So this plan is now much easier to explain to foreign investors, to mobilise capital both from abroad and domestically, because growth must be fuelled primarily by investment. We had a huge investment gap in the country, it got worse during the crisis years and we need to bridge it and we are moving in that direction and we need to run even faster to be able to do that.».
Referring to the long-term goals for Greece, after a decade-long crisis, the Prime Minister said: «The challenge is for this decade to be the decade of a great leap forward. And to really be able to look ahead of other countries, not how Greece will be, how the world will be. Because if we don't understand how the world will be, we cannot easily place Greece in this world which is changing.» «The Greece of 2030 must be a Greece that when we look back 10 years from now we will say “we were able”. I think we have made a start, but we still have many steps to go. There are countries that have made such leaps,» he added.
Responding to a question on the national elections, Kyriakos Mitsotakis said: «I believe that the goal of self-reliance in the second ballot is absolutely achievable. There is an issue at the moment: who can manage the future of the country in conditions of major crises. And because we now have four years of New Democracy and they are compared to the four years of SYRIZA - because it is our main challenger - and there are two persons, a former prime minister and a current prime minister, the comparison is very clear.».
Kyriakos Mitsotakis was introduced by the President of the Harvard Alumni Association, Katerina Papageorgiou, and the President of the Georgetown Alumni Association, Albertos Bourlas.
