In a recent address at the IFSWF summit, Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis highlighted Greece's ambition to position itself as a strategic hub for energy, data, and AI infrastructure.
The discussion included references to projects like PHAROS and underscored the technical and economic risks associated with single-supplier dependencies in computing power and advanced technologies.
He also detailed new fiscal frameworks designed to incentivize private investment and foster research ecosystems.
State and markets with a long horizon
The partnership between state and markets and Greece’s transition to a new investment era were at the heart of the speech by the Minister of National Economy and Finance and President of the Eurogroup, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, at the 18th annual meeting of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF). The meeting was hosted for the first time in Athens by the National Development Fund.
Pierrakakis argued that economic power is now directly linked to national power. In this context, he said, the state is not only a crisis manager, but a stable factor that contributes with long-term thinking, protection of values and safeguarding freedom of choice.
Markets effectively value the prospects of the next quarter and the next economic cycle, but they do not by themselves represent the interests of future generations. Projects such as electricity grids, ports, interconnections, research ecosystems and strategic infrastructure require planning that transcends political terms and investment cycles.
The state, he continued, is accountable to its citizens, even those who have not been born, and must decide what needs protection and when restrictions are justified in the public interest. Sovereignty, he said, presupposes that a country can set limits on capital.
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He also mentioned the cost of supplier lock-in: an option may seem cheap, but it creates strategic risk. Europe has seen this in the energy sector, while similar issues arise for critical fossil fuels, advanced technologies and computing power. Resilience, he stressed, is not inefficiency; it is the price of keeping options open.
European funds and Greek investments
Europe, according to the Eurogroup president, is not lacking in savings. The problem is that the fragmentation of the financial system makes it difficult to exploit them and drives capital out of the continent. He described the Savings and Investment Union as an “economic sovereignty project” and argued that strategic autonomy is based on cooperation from a position of strength, not isolation.
For Greece, he presented the recovery of investment grade and primary surpluses as signs of improvement. He also said that public debt is declining faster than anywhere else in the world: from 208%-209% of GDP after the pandemic, it is expected to be close to 137% by the end of the year.
With the Recovery Fund cycle coming to an end, attracting private capital is becoming more important. The measures he presented included tax legal certainty for fund managers and a 5% carried interest rate. He also mentioned the new investment savings account for children, which was voted and provides for additional public contributions.
In order for Greek businesses to gain greater international competitiveness, the minister set out guidelines for taking advantage of the Athens Stock Exchange's inclusion in Euronext and encouraging mergers and acquisitions.
Invitation to institutional investors
In closing, Pierrakakis called on international institutional investors to consider Greece as a hub for energy, data and artificial intelligence. He cited the PHAROS project as an example in the latter area. The country, he said, aspires to function as a gateway and a reliable partner in the wider region.
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