Greece’s appeal as the most attractive investment destination, despite growing challenges of uncertainty in Europe and around the world, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the energy crisis and conflict in Ukraine.
According to the results of Ernst & Young’s (EY) latest attractiveness survey on Greece, the percentage of businesses planning to invest or expand operations in the country in the next year – regardless of conditions difficult geopolitics – rose for the second year in a row, reaching 37%, up from 34% last year and 28% in 2020.
Conducted this year by Euromoney from March 15 to April 15, Greece 2022 EY Attractiveness Survey highlights the country’s performance in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the past year. With the aim of capturing the international investment community’s views on Greece, Euromoney surveyed 250 company directors from 25 countries.
“In a year of increasing global uncertainty, the attractiveness of our country as an investment destination remains high, thanks to the significant steps taken in recent years,” said CEO of EY in Greece – Panos Papazoglou said while presenting the report at the “5th InvestGR Forum 2022: A New Greece Rises” in Athens on Wednesday.
According to the survey, 58% of respondents, compared with 62% last year, said that their perception of Greece as a place where their business can establish or develop operations, has improved. benevolent.
“We must remember that we operate in an extremely competitive European and global environment, in which all countries today are increasing their efforts and moving at a rapid pace to strengthen more more of its charm. Now we have to compare ourselves to them, not to our previous achievements,” stressed Papazoglou.
3 out of 4 investors (75%) believe that the attractiveness of Greece will improve further in the next 3 years, a ratio that puts Greece in first place among the countries compared, including including France, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain, Ireland and Romania. Greece also tops the list when compared to the whole of Europe (64%).
As the report mentions, the war in Ukraine has affected the global investment community. As for Greece, 1 in 3 investors (32%) said they were pausing their investment plans until at least 2023 due to the war.
However, more than half of respondents (54%) said they would proceed with planned investments while 13% of those surveyed are proceeding with a small increase in planned investments.
Comparative advantages and the problems Greece needs to improve
Life quality; transport, logistics, telecommunications and digital infrastructure; and the level of local labor skills, are strong highlights that make Greece attractive today.
In contrast, the labor legal framework; Greece’s geopolitical position; education system; tax and social insurance costs; Access to finance; and the availability of capital are highlighted by investors as areas for improvement to further enhance Greece’s attractiveness.
Minister: More things need to be done to promote FDI
According to Development and Investment Minister Adonis Georgiadis, Greece has made significant progress in recent years thanks to government interventions aimed at combating bureaucracy and speeding up direct investment approvals for foreign direct investment (FDI).
The Minister mentioned investors who have entered the Greek market in the past 3 years such as Microsoft, Pfizer, Digital Realty, Cisco and Amazon Web Services.
“Investors don’t come to Greece out of sympathy. Investors look for a stable environment with the expectation that they will execute their plan and that is clearly the goal of profitable business…. No one invests and then loses capital”, he said.
Georgiadis added that despite the progress made in attracting FDI, Greece “still has a long way to go” and that the government has concrete plans to intervene in areas that need further improvement.
“For 2022, I am very optimistic because I believe we will move up the rankings (foreign direct investment). Unfortunately, the war will slow down investments in many European countries, but in Greece it has no effect on us in this area”, the Minister said.
According to the EY European Investment Monitor, an extensive database handled by Ernst & Young, 30 foreign direct investments (FDI) were made in Greece by 2021.
In total, investments in Greece over the past two years accounted for 24% of all investments made in the country over the past 22 years.
Net FDI inflows last year totaled more than 5 billion euros, compared with 2.9 billion euros in 2020, breaking all records since 2002, according to central bank data.
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Source: GTP Headlines
