The International Herald Tribune, in collaboration with Kathimerini daily, are co-hosting an Investment Forum, on October 15-16.

Titled Greece Investment Forum: Moving Forward, the forum featured yesterday Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, as a guest of honour and speaker, who, in his address, noted the need for Greece to harness untapped potential and increase its competitiveness to emerge from the current debt crisis, while at the same time to safeguard social cohesion and quell the rise in extremism.

Addressing the same forum, Development and Competitiveness Minister Kostis Hatzidakis referred to the establishment of a Greek Investment Fund which could draw capital from EU structural funds, development banks, international development organizations, as well as private investors, and will operate on the basis of private economy criteria and management. Hatzidakis also noted that another initiative concerns the negotiations under way for the National Strategic Framework 2014-20.

Earlier, in a keynote speech that opened the forum, Policy Advisor, Simon Anholt insisted that Greece did not have as severe an image problem as many Greeks believe, adding that it would be wrong for Greece to try to improve its image through a taxpayer-funded campaign and instead, try to focus on overhauling institutions. "If people like and admire a country, they’ll trade with it."

Primeminister.GR: Address to the IHT Forum (in Greek); Ministry of Development: Minister Hatzidakis’s Speech (in Greek)