PM Papandreou visits New York Stock Exchange and UN for Millenium Development Summit Goals

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou stressed on Monday, during a visit to the New York Stock Exchange where he attended a working lunch with the stock exchange’s president and leading Wall Street members, that Greece has changed dramatically over the past year, since in only a few months the country’s new government has promoted the most ambitious monetary and structural reforms in the history of the eurozone.
“We are responding to our commitments in time and within the time limits that had been set and often much earlier than expected exceeding expectations,” the prime minister said, adding that now his government is focusing on strengthening growth and measures that will make the economy more competitive.
He stressed that the radical restructuring of the pensioning and taxation system has already been promoted, as well as the restructuring of the public sector that will now function with geater transparency and effectiveness.

He further said that it is proceeding with the deregulation of the markets of products, services and labour, including the liberalisation of the energy market and of closed professions and assessed that these structural reforms will lead to an increase in production by 5 percent to 6 percent.
He also pointed out that Greece is providing a great prospect for investments in renewable energy sources as well as the infrastructures sector, while mentioning that assets of the public sector whose value amounts to 270 billion euros can be privatised or utilised, an amount that corresponds to almost the entire debt of the country.
Lastly, the prime minister made it clear that there is no question of the country going bankrupt and stressed that the Greek government proved that it means what it says while expressing certainty that the spreads will recede and that while all these reforms will begin to produce results, Greece will regain the confidence of investors.

Earlier in the day, the Greek prime minister underlined what he called the disappointment caused by a lack of progress regarding the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), such as the 50-percent decrease by 2015 of people living with less than one dollar a day.

He spoke during an intervention at a roundtable discussion held at the UN headquarters.
Papandreou stressed that the number of people who are starving increased from 842 million in 1990 to 1.02 billion in 2009, a development that he termed as unacceptable. On the other hand, he stressed the progress achieved concerning the decrease in mortality, the combating of illnesses and access to education although, as he noted, a great deal still remains to be done on these fronts as well.

After stressing that it is certain that the economic crisis made the effort more difficult, he pointed out that monetary austerity is functioning as an excuse for there to be no further moves and protectionism to return that obstructs the growth of developing countries.
(source: ana-mpa)