“First of all I would like to thank Minister Hatzidakis for the invitation to participate in this presentation. It is obvious that extroversion is the only way out of the crisis. You don’t have to be an expert to understand that with sluggish domestic demand, it is only through extroversion that we can hope to achieve sustainable growth, abandoning the model that brought us to our current circumstances: A model founded on mainly credit-based domestic demand. So externalizing our economy is a priority.
We are participating today, as the Foreign Ministry, in the Development Ministry’s initiative for the creation of an agency for economic extroversion – the Hellenic Investments and Exports Company (HIEC) – aimed at consolidating and strengthening the policy for promoting the extroversion of the Greek economy and Greek enterprises.
As you know, the Foreign Ministry is the agency that exercises the country’s foreign policy, part of which is economic diplomacy. By this term we mean both state economic diplomacy and the promotion and support of the activities of Greek enterprises abroad. The Foreign Ministry has realized the importance of economic diplomacy in the promotion of foreign policy, as it is unquestionable that, in our era, states like Greece are threatened more by economic crises – like the one we are going through – than by conflict or war.
In this context, the Foreign Ministry, in addition to its political network of Missions Abroad (Embassies and Consulates), has a special network of Economic and Commercial Affairs Offices (Commercial Sections) comprised of 59 offices in 50 countries.
Our diplomatic missions are playing a leading role in the effort to improve our country’s image abroad. They are consolidating an image of a Greece that is emerging from the crisis, that is keeping its promises and improving its competitiveness. It is noteworthy that – in contrast to two or three years ago – there is no longer any talk of Greece’s exiting the Eurozone; a prospect that at one time effectively put paid to any potential for foreign investment in Greece.
This network of Commercial Sections is the only agency in Greece’s core civil service that has ISO certification, which has allowed us, for a number of years now, to keep a record of the satisfaction of Greek entrepreneurs who have had recourse to Commercial Section support. It is the only civil service agency certified under this system for International Standardization. Thus, in 2011 and 2012, we can show a 95% satisfaction rate among Greek entrepreneurs who used Commercial Section services. And this satisfaction was evident from an extremely large and constantly growing number of requests for support. In 2011, there were 11,700 requests for support from our Commercial Sections, up 37% from 2010, while 2012 saw a further increase of 30.5%: 15,300 requests for support. As Minister Hatzidakis said, this is linked to total exports and the increasing interest of Greek entrepreneurs in finding markets abroad. And as I noted, the rate of satisfaction with Commercial Section services was 95%.
In parallel, in 2012, the Foreign Ministry, throughout this time during which it has put particular emphasis on economic diplomacy and economic extroversion, undertook many other activities: it planned and carried out business missions, and produced studies, annual reports and business guides.
And I am not omitting the Joint Interministerial Committees (JICs) with third countries of particular interest to us: Russia, Kazakhstan – yesterday’s JIC – and India, with whom we are preparing for a JIC. These are committees that cover not only foreign trade issues, but also the whole range of economic relations: transport, agricultural development, tourism, technological cooperation and other economic issues.
Unfortunately, there has been a 25% reduction in Commercial Affairs personnel since 2007. And here I would like to note that these personnel cover not only the needs of Greek enterprises active or seeking to become active abroad. They also cover many other important matters of economic diplomacy, such as energy issues, transport, tourism. The total number of personnel serving today comes to 150 persons, of whom 90 are posted to Commercial Sections at our Embassies abroad, while the other 60 are here at the Foreign Ministry’s Central Service.
For this reason – and given that the Foreign Ministry statutes do not currently provide for the hiring of new personnel in this branch – the Foreign Ministry is going to undertake the initiative to reinforce the Economic and Commercial Affairs Personnel Branch with personnel to be chosen on strict criteria, through examinations, while in tandem promoting the restructuring of the Commercial Sections abroad. In this framework, the Vienna Commercial Section is being reopened, while some peripheral Offices of lesser importance – with limited results – are being shut down, with new Offices being set up in dynamic markets like Qatar and Kuwait, with additional Offices in Russia (Saint Petersburg) and Mexico.
It is our hope that, here at home, we will see the creation of a strong and credible pole of attraction for investments and the promotion of exports. The Foreign Ministry will continue to work closely with the Development Ministry and the new agency toward the more effective and dynamic handling of extroversion issues here at home, with a dynamic representation abroad through the Foreign Ministry. For this reason, a number of Foreign Ministry Economic and Commercial Affairs personnel – as provided for by the HIEC draft law – will be seconded for a time to the Development Ministry and function as Liaisons at the HIEC, while at the same time a number of HIEC personnel will be seconded to Commercial Sections abroad.
I would like to wish the political leadership of the Development Ministry a positive outcome from its plans, and I would like to state that the Foreign Ministry will support the HIEC’s efforts within the competencies and responsibilities of the Development Ministry, as we are doing today, as well as the efforts of other Ministries and Services to promote the extroversion of the Greek economy.”
[Response to a journalist’s question on the transferring of Commercial Sections (the Economic and Commercial Affairs Branch) to the Development Ministry.]
So that there should be no misunderstanding, the Economic and Commercial Affairs Branch will remain at the Foreign Ministry. The decision to transfer the Economic and Commercial Affairs Branch from the then Trade Ministry to the Foreign Ministry was taken in 2002, and it is widely seen as having been the right decision. It ensures the more effective integration of Commercial Affairs personnel into our diplomatic missions. The business agencies and entrepreneurs will confirm that it was the right decision in 2002, not to mention today, when, due to the crisis and globalization, it is inconceivable to separate economic diplomacy from classical diplomacy.
The draft law provides for the potential seconding of a number of Economic and Commercial Affairs personnel to the new agency at the Development Ministry. Regarding the issue of Economic and Commercial Affairs hiring: the Foreign Ministry statutes do not provide for Economic and Commercial Affairs hiring. Commercial Affairs positions are intuitu personae and are fated to disappear gradually. Due to the great importance we attach to economic diplomacy, it is our view that there is a direct need for new hiring. This has nothing to do with the new Development Ministry agency, and that is why we will soon look into providing for this, transparently, legislatively. Commercial Affairs personnel were once hired through the School of Public Administration, there were some thoughts regarding hiring through the Diplomatic Academy – we are looking at it, discussing it. The Foreign Ministry has not hired Economic and Trade Affairs personnel for 7 years now.
October 16, 2013