Prime Minister Antonis Samaras presented his “vision for National Development” at a special event at the Benaki Museum, today, and talked about a seven year period when the country will be able to return to pre-crisis levels with a raise of GDP, creation of 770000 jobs and prosperity for citizens.

Meanwhile, Mr. Samaras attacked the opposition and put forth the dilemma prior to European elections: stability and growth, or a return to the crisis and adventure.

“Greece, until 2020, will recover the prosperity it enjoyed before the crisis”, the PM stated and added that “from now on, day after day, month after month, the situation will improve for everyone, more and more people will be finding jobs, businesses will be funded, and we will have no more memoranda or flat austerity measures. We were asked, but we do not need it. The tax measures will be lessened. This year is a year of development. In 2015, growth will be at 2.9% and in 2016, at 3.7%.

The Prime Minister referred to the estimates of international organizations and independent study centers’ analyses.

He reported on the growth potential that tourism has in the next seven years, in the primary sector in energy and technology, which could all bring a total of 770000 job positions and raise the GDP to more than 230 billion euros, the highest prior to the crisis.

“Tourism can give us 16.5 billion more, and 225 thousand jobs, over the next seven years. The primary sector can provide another 13.5 billion and 315000 jobs. Research and technology can provide us with 2 billion and 50000 jobs. There are also other sectors.”, stated Mr. Samaras, the latter of which have not been added onto the research and provides for an even greater scope for improvement.

He also made a specific mention to international partnerships and investments that big companies will be forming in our country.

The Main Priorities

“I believe that growth will be faster and prosperity will be more widespread in the country, if we do not repeat the mistakes of the past”, stated Mr. Samaras and mentioned his key priorities:

-Reducing unemployment. It has already begun, but over the next four years, 550000 new jobs will be created, and in seven years, Greece will be under the average European rate for unemployment. Employment growth will bring forth an increase in wages.

-Reducing taxation. We will reduce tax rates everywhere, but based on planning. Both direct, as well as indirect taxes. But it will be done carefully in order not to hurt the primary surplus, and it will be combined with a war against tax evasion. Corporate profits will see a maximum tax rate of 15%. Income profits will not exceed 33% and VAT will not exceed 12%. The fight against tax evasion has already begun.

-Reducing the costs in the agricultural sector. Agricultural production has difficulties due to costs, compared to the competition abroad. The petrol gas card will come into effect next year for farmers. There will be a reduction in the insurance costs of Legal Immigrants from July 1st. A legalization of grazing land with the constitutional revision which was recently passed. An open way for the producer to acquire cheaper financing. It will pave the way for the processing of agricultural products within the country, domestically.

-Cash flow in businesses. With the recapitalization, the banking system is completely reliable and deposits are absolutely safe. Banks find funds from abroad by themselves and they have gone through the stress tests. The more that confidence in the Greek economy is restored, the more deposits will return and an increase in potential liquidity, will be noted.

-Promoting reforms. The hit against bureaucracy has already begun. The more we move forward, the more investments will come, because we now make it easier for them, we do not turn them away. We will fight against tax evasion with regular checks, and cross-checking clearing debts. The country becomes friendly for investments which would otherwise go elsewhere. Investments are now exculpated.  The PM made a specific mention to constitutional reform: stability in the election system, the incompatibility of the positions of Minister and MP, a reduced term even for the Prime Minister.

“I want a Greece which will not be the only country in Europe that does not allow for private universities”, stated the PM. “We fight so that the old ways of the public sector break apart. I want a Greece which is a model state, a model democracy of prosperity, a gateway for trade, an international hub. A Greece which is a stabilizing power. This is the country we are all dreaming of. Now, we are building it, steadily, day by day”.

Attack on the opposition and the dilemma

Mr. Samaras attacked the opposition party and put forth the dilemma of Sunday: “New Greece is not an election slogan. Stability is not an election dilemma that the country needs. Some tried to impersonate New Greece as a slogan, because they can only regurgitate things like that. We also have the resistances of the old ways, all those who think that everything should be controlled by the state, and that they should control the state itself. They are all those who chase away investments, who preserved an illogical bureaucracy, all those who turned universities into havens for illegals and terrorists, and abused students and teachers. Those who want to fill Greece with illegal immigrants. Those who seek instability, whose members stood up for even those who were arrested”.
He continued: “They are all those who for two years have not voted for one reform, or one article. All those who have no plan and want to turn us back. All those that yell that they will tear apart memoranda. What memoranda? The ones we are almost through with? How would 27 parliaments and international markets react to such a move? Where would they find the funds, would they borrow? From whom and on what terms? I heard talk of obligatory borrowing. From where? From deposits? From income? They are trying to put us back into the mire of the same misadventure. Stability is the prerequisite for the country to move forward. Development will not happen with extreme or borrowed slogans. The National Development Plan will lead us into the future, it is what will replace all the memoranda. The country is taking off, it is gaining ground. The citizen is called to answer to this on Sunday: Forward into development, or backwards into the crisis? It is up to the Greeks to decide, and I am certain that the Greeks love their country more than they do their political parties.

Report on the last two years

“Beyond the painful crisis, Greece has gone through radical changes. We have succeeded in the biggest reduction of deficits. We promoted reforms, Greece led the way in investment in 2013. We reduced debt, we narrowed interest rates, without going bankrupt. The interest rates will go down further in the autumn. We restored the country’s credibility abroad. We entered the memorandum in 2010, when markets refused to lend us any money. Now we are accepted by markets and we are exiting the era of memoranda. We are building a new Greece of competitiveness, not statism, a new Greece which fights for everything it can, and wins. This is the Greece we wish to found, and we will not let anyone turn us around, and take us back to the crisis and the memoranda”, underscored the Prime Minister.

Mr. Samaras continued his proposal, answering the basic questions about how we will proceed. For the first time, we adopt a National Development Plan, modern, and complete, as he stated.

The event began with the screening of the elections TV spot of the New Democracy party. The event was attended by House Chairman Mr. Vangelis Meimarakis, Minister of National Defence, Mr. Dimitris Avramopoulos, the Ministers of Justice, Public Order, Shipping, Labor, Mrs Dora Bakoyannis, members of parliament and most of the party’s EuroParliament candidates.