Industry has responded well to the more competitive EU environment, but there are calls to speed up privatisation
reek
industrial and manufacturing companies have been enjoying some good
times of late. Business confidence has been high on the back of positive
government reforms and a better macroeconomic environment, which has
encouraged modernisation.
Industry has responded well to the challenges posed by Greece’s
entry to the European Union and the more intensive international competition
it brings.
In 2000, an average rise of 30 per cent in sales and 40 per cent in
investment on the previous year highlighted the reasons behind the buoyant
spirit of many firms. Indeed, for the past few years, investment rates
have been among the highest anywhere in Europe.
Yet the transition process has not been fast enough for some. The Federation
of Greek Industries (FGI), which represents more than 1,500 local enterprises,
is calling on the government to step up the pace of privatisation and
other crucial economic reforms.
|
||
 |
FGI
president Lefteris Antonacopoulos
says some of the problems of the past, especially red tape, are still
a drag on business and in attracting investment. “The problems
we’ve had in the public sector and with bureaucracy are still very
heavy. We have a lot of work ahead of us in order to facilitate these
potential investors.”
Industrialists have criticised the slow pace of the divestiture programme
and the government’s preoccupation with raising funds from the
scheme rather than ensuring effective corporate management. But Mr Antonacopoulos
believes Greece is a different country from how it was just three years
ago, although it needs to pick up the pace as the competition is stronger.
He says: “We need to synchronise and modernise the public sector,
liberalise the markets as fast as we can and also privatise our state-owned
companies. The longer it takes to privatise, the harder it will become.”
But he says the entrepreneurial spirit has always been very strong in
Greece; a fact that has helped many businesses to become more competitive.
Companies are now looking to expand their reach into new territories,
not just the near reaches of the Balkans but also sophisticated and
distant markets, such as Western Europe and North America.
|
||
|
Perhaps
a visible symbol of Greece’s new dynamic corporatism is Corinth
Pipeworks, still essentially a family-run business but with more than
15,000 shareholders through the stock market.
It is one of the largest steel-pipe manufacturers in the world.
Using the ancient trading city to its unique advantage, the company
has built its reputation on meeting the requirements of foreign oil
and gas producers in the Middle East, Africa and its emerging Caspian
region.
General director Kostas Mitropoulos
says that, despite unsettled markets, the firm is looking at growth
as high as 100 per cent over the next year, depending on how the oil
and gas market develops.
“We have been transferring and operating pipelines to bring oil
from the Caspian area to the Black Sea and we were the first to do this.
We have another large pipeline in Kazakhstan, which is about 700km in
length,” he says.
Corinth Pipeworks, which also makes pipelines for the expanding water
industry, mostly for export, recently completed a major $169 million
investment programme to boost capacity. As well as upgrading its original
plant in Corinth, this has resulted in the construction of a new manufacturing
facility at Thisvi, on the coast of the Gulf of Corinth.
The
company dominates the markets of the Middle East, North and West Africa,
Syria and India, as well as the local Greek market, but it is still
looking to branch out. “We are trying to diversify, not just in
one area but in many areas of the industry, so if one market collapses
we can still hold on to the others,” says Mr Mitropoulos.
This includes helping the reconstruction of the Balkans where several
major privatisations are taking place that could open up new opportunities
for the firm.
Mr Mitropoulos says the company attaches great significance to innovation
in order to maintain growth and a competitive edge. He also believes
other Greek companies in the industrial and manufacturing sectors have
taken on the same lessons. “Some other companies are improving
– it’s not just us,” he says.
“You need to move fast though. The Greek private sector is moving
in the right direction and it is expanding quickly.”
Asprofos Engineering,
a subsidiary of state-owned refinery group Hellenic Petroleum, is another
leading local player taking its expertise overseas. Originally formed
from the upgraded works of the state-owned Aspropyrgos refinery back
in 1983, it has grown into a separate engineering firm with an annual
turnover of $19.1 million.
|
||
|
Asprofos
chairman Lazaros Lazaridis
has a simple piece of advice: either a company continues to grow or
it dies. “We are very strong in many fields, but
I would say our core strengths are those we had from the beginning,
which lie in refining, the petrochemical industries and the energy sector.”
Asprofos has formed strategic partnerships with specialists in the energy
sector and with consultancies to enhance its project capabilities. It
is now moving into new business areas.
Mr Lazaridis says the company has an ongoing programme to review its
strategy, processes, information systems and personnel. It is also looking
to make further inroads into foreign markets, especially North Africa,
the Balkans and Turkey, and possibly other parts of Europe.
He
suggests that Greek companies often provide better value than their
Western European counterparts. “We are very competitive in the
areas in which we can substitute for European companies. Let us say
that instead of using British, French or German companies, you can use
Greek companies because they are more competitive.”
Asprofos has developed close relations with the Public Gas Corporation
of Greece (DEPA), which is looking to develop major gas import-export
pipeline links with neighbouring countries.
“DEPA is in discussions for a pipeline from Italy and then for
one that will follow on to the Greek-Turkish border,” says Mr Lazaridis.
“We could be very useful in this, and we are very open and willing
to cooperate.”
In
addition to these ambitious schemes, the gas corporation’s management
is in the process of building a modern, dynamic energy company around
the emerging, local, natural gas market. With the introduction of private
funding through a series of strategic partnerships with major foreign
energy players, such as Italy’s Italgas, the development of the
gas sector is expected to lead to a high level of work for the Greek
industrial sector.
DEPA chairman Dimitris Sotirlis says that being part of Europe will
assist the evolution of the indigenous gas industry, just as it has
helped the development of many local businesses.
“We are trying to develop a highly-competitive environment and
you cannot achieve that independently. You have to belong somewhere
in a global club of countries like the European Union, with a unified
monetary unit.”
[email protected]