In his interview to US business news channel CNBC, Finance Minister Gikas Hardouvelis stated that those who will decide to invest in Greece will not be sorry.

Mr. Hardouvelis underlined that “Greece needs cash from abroad and one way to attract that is through investments and privatizations. We have seen that there is lot of interest in the Greek ports, in the airports, in other companies. People are lining up now to buy assets.”

The finance minister noted that this is a new experience for Greece, that can be attributed to the fact that “investors now see there is only upside potential in the country. The economy has stabilized after a lengthy, lengthy recession of six years so their bet will succeed.”

Asked whether he expects the country to need another program, Mr. Hardouvelis replied that the “bailout program did have benefits in the sense that lenders forced Greece to actually do structural reforms. After a point and after you do the reforms, one needs to do this on their own and to me structural reforms is something one ought to be vigilant on and the population has to own them. For the population to own them, they have to see cash in their pockets. They have to associate the reforms with the benefits of the expansion that is coming.”

He also noted that Greece is No 1 for 2-3 years in the OSCE rankings on new reforms.

Asked to assess the extent to which the Greeks accept the reforms, Mr. Hardouvelis said: “Frankly the Greeks have matured as individuals. They have connected the expenditure of the government on pensions, on other giveaways with their own taxes. Finally they know that they have to pay for the government expenditure. This is amazing maturity for a population who has suffered.”