THE NEW GOVERNMENT’S ASPIRATIONS FOR THESSALONIKI AND NORTHERN GREECE:
FING’S PROPOSALS FOR DEVELOPMENT

The Federation of Industries of Northern Greece (FING), as the main representative of the industrial world of Northern Greece, believes that the main goal for the new government is to place the various regions of the country in the spotlight, through actively supporting regional development and convergence of Regions, with emphasis placed on boosting Northern Greece area. At the same time, Thessaloniki must be directly and practically promoted as the country’s second pole of development.

For us, in FING, the main axes on which the development of the country must rest in the coming years are the following:
Α] Industry must motivate development in the regions of Greece and particularly in Northern Greece:
Faced with the pressure of international competition that has emerged in recent years, Greek manufacturing is at the stage of adapting to the reality of globalization.
Our proposals are the following:
1. Exercise of sector industrial policy.
2. A framework for the market operation that is more favourable for business, more stable and less bureaucratic.
3. Creation of a framework for supporting enterprises’ innovative activities.
4. Reinforcement of internationalization and extroversion of industry.
5. Improvement of all kinds of infrastructures that serve enterprises.

Β] Higher education must meet the needs of the new economy:
The perpetuation of incongruity between University curricula and the labour market needs creates structural unemployment and activates anachronistic reflexes in citizens, who place pressure on the political system to create jobs in the public sector. As this situation undermines the future of the country in the long run, we propose the following:
1. Establishment of drafting an annual or biannual action plan for the country’s Universities, which will include measurable goals and will place emphasis on the development of research activities.
2. Establishment of University reviews.
3. Connection of Universities with the market, through the creation of a suitable institutional framework for the joint implementation of research programmes with private enterprises.
4. Correlation of University curricula to the needs of the labour market.

C] Decentralization of public administration services, aiming at supporting regional development:
Currently, a hierarchical bureaucracy remains in force, impeding development and particularly regional development. In order to rationalize the public administration system, we propose the following:
1. Implementation of a clear regional development policy, which will include decentralization of the powers of central government.
2. Decentralised planning of developmental policies instead of centralized.
3. Creation of public service branches directly connected with the operation of enterprises at regional level.
4. Initiation of public dialogue on the evolution of the country’s current administrative model into a new one where the central government’s competencies and powers will be transferred at the local level.

D] The positioning of Thessaloniki in international markets:
The government’s declaration for Thessaloniki to evolve into a “City of Innovation”, which took place three years ago, has only been realized in part, since delays in making the relevant decisions has created a climate of pessimism in local authorities and a feeling of stagnancy in regard to decisions concerning the future of the city.

Therefore, we propose the following:
1. Acceleration of processes for implementing the “Thessaloniki Innovation Zone” and grant of special incentives for the establishment of new economy enterprises within its limits.
2. Provision of a time schedule for the creation of a logistics services zone within Thessaloniki Port.
3. Creation of a new exhibition centre of modern specifications that will once again place the City of Thessaloniki in the regional exhibition market of Balkan countries.
4. Placing emphasis on the creation of Pan-European Axes X, IX and IV within the framework of the current international transport policy.