Economy minister: Greek economy needs 80 bln euros to recover

The minister was replying to criticism levelled by main opposition New Democracy Vice-President Kostas Hatzidakis during the debate on the government's draft development law before the Parliament plenum.
He contradicted Hatzidakis' claim that the new law only offered 480 million euros in financing when the country needed 100-120 billion, noting that the money available under the new law, combined with tax exemptions it offers, actually amounted to 3.6 billion euros. Of this, he added, 2.6 billion euros would go toward the investment programmes of the previous laws.
"Yesterday you said 100 billion euros [were needed]. Today it's 120 billion. Make up your mind," Stathakis told ND's vice-president, outlining where the 80 billion will come from. "There are the public investments, about 20 billion euros from the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF), 20 billion euros from private enterprise and bank loans and the financing tools of the European Investment Bank," he pointed out.
The government had also reduced the red tape needed to set up a new business and included 42 mature projects in the Juncker plan, the minister repeated.
Hatzidakis also criticised the draft law for failing to provide incentives for new investments but raising obstacles instead, such as restrictions on bank transactions, overtaxation, a freeze on business licences and public-private partnerships, while absorption of NSRF funds had falled to a minimal 2 pct.
Addressing Parliament earlier, Stathakis had noted that only 15 billion of a nominal 80 billion euro in overdue taxpayers' debt to the state were the actual arrears; the remaining 65 billion euros were debts owed by companies that have closed or persons dead since the 1980s.
Stathakis denied that exports had fallen, noting that the data included oil products and that skewed the final result because of the fall in their prices.
The discussion in Parliament on the new development law will be concluded late on Wednesday, followed by the voting procedure.