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| (credit: David Guo's Master) |
"With few words and many actions, we are aligning [our actions] to bring growth through businesses, so that we have a country friendly toward entrepreneurship," Samaras said, adding that the law is to be passed by early April. "We cannot reduce unemployment by wishing for it. Supporting entrepreneurship is key to increasing employment," he stressed, noting that the new one-day licencing procedure will reduce the cost of starting up a business.According to Development and Competitiveness Minister Costis Hatzidakis, who presented the details of the draft bill, it was a message to the international community that Greece and the entire process for issuing business licences is changing.
"We are decriminalising entrepreneurship. We are reducing the cost of founding a business, reducing bureaucracy, because we consider that facilitating enterprises is a fundamental condition for growth and creating new jobs," the premier said.
The draft bill introduces four main changes, among others removing requirements for supporting documentation, with the business owner henceforth held responsible for the accuracy of his claims in the application, except in environmental protection issues. It also allows inspections to be carried out while the business is already in operation rather than in the period before the licence is issued, by certified private as well as public-sector agencies, and sets up a uniform electronic system for handling business licence procedures.
According to Hatzidakis, the net result will create a completely new environment for investors. The minister noted that obtaining a licence to operate a heavy or medium-impact industrial enterprises currently requires the completion of 21 different procedural steps, 14 of which will be scrapped under the new system. The seven remaining steps will all be carried out on line.
He noted that, overall, there will be a 60 pct reduction in the steps needed to issue a business licence and stricter penalties for offences, with fines as high as 3.0 million euros of 15pct of turnover, even closure and criminal prosecution. Reducing suspicion of corruption, harmonising with international practice, more independent inspections and a smaller workload for the courts would be other side benefits, he added.
Hatzidakis said that completing the legislative framework will require a series of bills prepared by a number of ministries, as well as presidential decrees that must be approved by the Council of State and a host of ministerial decisions. The entire framework is expected to be in place by the end of the year, according to the minister.
(AMNA)
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