The absence of the issue of competitiveness from the debate held ahead of the European elections was pointed out by the president of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV), Dimitris Papalexopoulos, who participated in the panel moderated by Vassilis Antoniadis, General Manager and Chief Executive of the consulting company, Boston Consulting Group in Greece, during the third day of the Delphi Economic Forum IX.
“Europe is becoming less and less competitive,” he underlined.
Papalexopoulos pointed out that Europe has become less and less competitive compared to emerging Asia and the US over the last 25 years – as, among other things, it lacks large technology companies and makes no progress in technology sectors. In his intervention, he highlighted the dangers of a rapid transition to green growth, which puts some sectors of industry at risk. As he said, the green transition is the right choice, but it must be done with strategy. “The green transition is the right policy, but it is expensive”, Europe’s demographics are not good at all, while, he said, if we take into account the challenges with Artificial Intelligence, Europe is again lagging behind the developments.
He also stressed the need for “more and better Europe – that is why we have to look at the issue of competitiveness to be able to finance our ambitious goals in all sectors.”
“Confidence in Greece has been restored, but we must move quickly,” he stated.
More specifically, he said that Greece’s long-term outlook is very positive, there are many positive prospects, the structure of our economy is resilient, many sectors of the economy are doing very well, confidence has been restored, but we have to move quickly.
