My “hat” of the Minister of National Defence will allow me today to analyse what exactly this initiative is about: the utilization of a property worth approximately 34 billion consisting of land, islands, military premises, old firing ranges, old airports, ports which are owned not by the Ministry of National Defence, but by military funds, by the National Defence Fund which covers all the three branches, by the Fund of the Hellenic Army General Staff, the National Fleet Fund which follows more pioneer procedures than the other branches and by the Fund of the Hellenic Air Force.

It is a property of four funds which, as I was told when I took office as Minister of National Defence, yielded about 1,5 million euro annually and its total rateable value was estimated at 34 billion euro.

I have a second “hat” which I will use; the one of the Leader of the Independent Hellenes party, a movement that participates as government partner in the coalition government of SYRIZA and the INDEPENDENT HELLENED. I am saying this because the INDEPENDENT HELLENES are a movement which believes in the private initiative, in privatisations, it believes in the free economy.

We will not take off this “hat” easily. Contrary to our coalition with SYRIZA in this government, when necessary and when we have to, we will help this government to choose more liberal and private sector oriented policies; respecting, of course, each other, respecting each other’s “red lines”, yet also respecting the mandate of the Greek people to cooperate in a government which brings national common understanding for the first time, which politicians, like Pavlos Bakogiannis, tries to apply in the past.

I believe that we apply it now. At difficult times for our country, it is very important for us to be united. At difficult times for our country which lead to a new era after the last agreement of the Eurogroup and the agreement of our country’s creditors to leave the era of the memoranda and start an era of growth, it is imperative that the Greek people remain united, regardless of any political disagreement. I assure you that we, with the “hat” of the INDEPENDENT HELLENES, we have political disagreements within the coalition with SYRIZA, as we do with other parliamentary parties.

Allow me to say that I have a third “hat” too, the one that brings me here, to Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI), and the “hat” of the entrepreneur. I was first here in 1982, when with my father who was one of the founding members of ACCI, we represented enterprises. Then I represented BATEK SA, the first enterprise of Europcar and Interrent that brought car rentals to Greece, the E. KAMMENOS SE that imported cars, Autopol SA which made the first imports from Eastern Europe using the clearing system, the Global Insurance Company, companies related to real estate and generally enterprises.

This is why I wish to tell you that I am seeing here favourite friends from the past and I want to assure you that I have not taken off this “hat” and I am trying to match it with the other two, mainly the political one which will help us see how the state and the private initiatives can coexist, not with relations of coercion, because until now – to tell the truth – the relation between politics and private sector was about exchange, “give me and I will give you”, “ either I threaten you or you threaten me”, “I will give in or you will give in”.

This relation of exchange created corruption in Greece. Billions of money was given to various newspapers without any circulation, by the Hellenic Centre for Disease Control & Prevention, the Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company (EYDAP S.A.), the OPAP, to use them as tools of politics and hit politicians or to help various business interests. We saw big agreements of the private sector with the state collapsing because some people were paid illegally to hit these enterprises or to blackmail politicians to accept their work.

These relations of corruption and these relations that were created after the dictatorship are the relations which, as I strongly believe, this government can hit; because it does not owe anybody. Neither I, nor Alexis Tsipras, nor SYRIZA, nor the INDEPENDENT HELLENES have received any money or served as means for such interests to be served. Of course, by this I do not imply that politicians of other parties or that all politicians are corrupted. There are honest people who paid with their political careers because they did not compromise; people who belonged to the New Democracy party, of which I was a member for many years, to PASOK, to other parties, who did not compromise with the rules of corruption.

Allow me also to wear one more “hat”, the last one, the one of the Greek citizen; I want you to face me when I wear this one; the one of a father of five children. My older son graduated from university some days ago, unfortunately he studied abroad. I hope that tomorrow he will be here with our other children to rebuild our country. Let’s bring back together those 300,000 Greek citizens who left Greece and are the main weapons which our country can use to move onto the future. This is the “hat” which I believe that we all must put on at this time.

It is a special honour to be here as Minister of National Defence because I believe that one of the main pillars on which we may build this sincere relationship between the public and the private initiative is the field of the Armed Forces, of the Ministry of National Defence which has remained intact and is trusted by a huge percentage of the Greek people. If you take a look at the figures – I am not referring to the political opinion polls which are probably ordered or prejudiced and all of them were proved wrong – the strongest confidence of the Greek people is to the Armed Forces.   

Our country’s Armed Forces remained intact because they have discipline, because they have high morale, because there the “beliefs”, principles and values play a more important role. These people do not defence our country’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty because they are professionals. They defence our country’s independence because they believe in it. They will give, as they say in their oath, “even the last drop of their blood” to defence our flag. This is very important for the manner in which an uncorrupted sector, like the Armed Forces, will cooperate in this new effort between the state and the private sector, to give the example and open the way to the future.

From the first moment I took office in the ministry of National Defence I tried to find ways to reduce the expenses. We are perhaps one of the fewest NATO countries to still keep – and it is of great importance to keep this – the defence expenditure at 2% of the NDP, with a rational spending, with an increase of the income and a reduction of the expenses. Regarding the reduction of the expenses a lot of steps have been taken but this is not the moment to analyse it. We will present them within the next months. These steps were related to the introduction of entrepreneurial practices to the management, the creation of common stocks, the effort to rationalize the expenditure. What matters in our today’s meeting is the effort to create income.

When I met, as Head of the Ministry of National Defence, the General for the first time and I asked him to tell me what is the property of the funds of the Ministry of National Defence and he told me that they amount to 34 billion euro, I did not believe him, to be honest. Thirty four billion euro of property which remain unused and are not offered to develop our country’s income. I told him “General, what do we do this property?”. He answered “Mr. Minister, they are used for briberies; that is, every Minister who is actually responsible for the utilization of these assets called a mayor – following a fair request of MPs – and said “following your fair request, we give you a camp. One takes a camp, another takes a building, another takes an airport”. All these airports, buildings, islands, military camps were subject to political exploitation by every Minister of National Defence who offered a gift to the local communities obviously to ensure some votes.

The first thing that we did at a meeting of the Council of National Defence, in which the Alternate Minister Dimitris Vitsas, the then Deputy minister and the Chiefs of the General Staffs participated, was to make an important decision at first: that this exploitation of the assets of the Armed Forces Funds in the form of political briberies stops. Nothing and for no reason will be given unless a rate which under the market laws we defined as 5%, on the rateable values is ensured to be offered to the Funds. This 5% is a minimum rate which can be given as rent price of premises for the exploitation of these property assets.

I believe in this Chamber and I want to make clear that we will be against every effort that was made in the past or is made now to close the Chambers. Wearing the “hat” of the Leader of the INDEPENDENT HELLENES I am telling you that we, as one of the coalition government movements, will not allow any plans to close the Chambers, be implemented.

Giorgos Zisimatos is with me today. He is a man of the market, an honest entrepreneur who underwent too the hits of the crisis and I asked him – without any payment as he asked – to create entrepreneurial standards in cooperation with the directors of the Funds, a modern plan for the exploitation of the property of the Ministry of National Defence.

We already submitted to the Parliament – it has been submitted to consultation and is available to you – the bill which provided for the procedures to be followed for this property to be used to the benefit of our national economy.

What is, therefore, the procedure that one should follow now to be able to rent something for 99 years, to be able to invest, to be able to build, to be able to avoid bureaucracy, having ensured that the legislation does not allow the possibility of usucapio of a specific site which exists in private contracts too? What we created is a very simple procedure.

This procedure provides: the presentation of the property of the Funds of National Defence when an interest is expressed. Any interested submits an offer including the minimum annual rate of 5% that is provided for renting the land or the building of the island. Since an offer of the 5% for a specific, clearly described land and every potential that this land has, is made, then an MoU between the National Defence Fund and the interested person is signed; it states that he is interested in renting it for the following 99 years or less depending on what he wants or 50 years – 50 years is the minimum period – and that he is committed to offer 5% annually.

This will result in a fast track procedure which is posted on an e-bid online for seven days. For seven days, through absolutely transparent procedures, any interested person will be able to outbid the offer of another interested bidder; that is to outbid the yield rate of this particular land or building, knowing, on the other hand, the bid of the previous bidders.

Why should one choose the Ministry of National Defence? Because, due to the currently applicable law, the buildings which will be repaired on this land, on these islands or camps, are military premises and we undertake to build them. Namely, the famous joint squads of construction will undertake this. The Council of Land-Use Planning, Agglomeration and the Environment belongs to our service, which means that the license for a specific investment will be granted by our service. So, you realize that all this will be completed through very brief procedures.  
 
I would like to tell you, at this point, that the operating costs of the Ministry of National Defence are covered only by the exploitation of this property. There will be, of course, a priority and communication with the local authorities. We will deal with any particular cases separately. And, although Giorgos Zisimatos advised me not to mention any examples, I will mention some because it is them that led us to the decision to proceed and pass the legislation.

Some examples of what the property of the Ministry of National Defence is and what interest is expressed: They are not inheritances; there is no involvement of other bodies or contracts that abide the National Defence Funds or the other Funds. The license granting procedure is clear and licenses will be probably necessary to avoid any further procedures. This only is 30 bn.

Allow me to mention four examples; the first ones are here in Attica region. The first one is Fleves Island. Fleves Island belongs to the Hellenic Navy; it is a fort. Fleves island, along with Tourlos island near Aigina, were the forts from which in World War II the Germans controlled the ships sailing in and out of the Saronic Gulf.

If you visit Fleves, you will see that there are still huge cannons. The Metaxas line followed World War II. After World War II Metaxas line was not only on Northern Greece and the forts, it also protected the Saronic Gulf and Athens.

So, Fleves is very close to Vouliagmeni, there are many gulfs around the island and we started to present this island, as well as Tourlos island near Aigina, Perdika Island near Aigina and Prasonisi Island to some bodies to see if there is any interest in them. At first, we presented it to Greek Americans who demonstrated a large interest. We presented it during a visit of the Greek-Israeli organizations of the United States. I presented it to leaders and businessmen during all the visits that I made as Minister of National Defence with Greek defence industry entrepreneurs.

The first results: there is at present a proposal from Abu Dhabi about Fleves island, for the creation of a resort, an investment worth of 3,6 bn euros for the construction of bungalows with an organized golf course and a marina.

The result is that this which will be submitted to the consultation – more proposals may be submitted too – will yield the Hellenic Navy, the Fund of the Fleet a minimum of 100 million euro annually.

Second proposal: A very big fund from Israel visited us, which performs investments in Israel and decided to invest in Greece too. We proposed them, apart from Fleves in which interest has been expressed – everything is done in public, this is very important – to visit Tourlos Island at the northern part of Aegina opposite Piraeus. And they did. Can we then imagine how many people will work there, how many Greek companies will work only for the construction with an investment of 2.4 billion euro? And also how many companies will operate and how many Greek citizens will work to produce income for the country?

Third example: We were very interested in cruises. Why in the field of cruises? Because all the cruises which start and end in the Mediterranean, require for special security codes in the ports. The requirements of a cruise ship which carries American citizens are different from a cruise ship which carries European citizens, different from a cruise ship that carries Israeli citizens, or citizens from other countries.

So, we thought which asset of the Ministry of National Defence can help us create a place with the necessary conditions for cruise ships in Southern Mediterranean Sea, given the situation in the Middle East and Northern Africa where there are no security conditions now? There is one of our plans, which has not succeeded yet in finding interested investors because they have not seen it yet. Ms. Kountoura, as Minister of Tourism signed a contract with us and presents it whenever she represents Greece. This place is at the firing range of Prasonisi, Southern Rhodes. We want to create a big centre on Prasonisi which will be a starting and ending point of cruises in Eastern Mediterranean.

A very important step which interests enterprises too and I want the Chambers to support it is the creation of a special place for customs. How could this help? It will help cruise travellers to be able to extend their stay in Greece. Unfortunately, we did not manage to do it on the islands although we pressured our creditors very hard, they were obsessed in pressuring for the tax privileges of small islands to be abolished. We lost several islands. We lost nine islands which was very important. Personally, for me this was an issue I fought for with all my force. We did not manage to protect them all. But we can create conditions of low taxation.

There are areas which are particularly sensitive. One of them is Perdika at Aegina. There we discussed with the competent authorities and the environmental organizations. It is a magnificent place. Some of you may know Perdika, from the sea you can see the village at the left. There are no apartment blocks; there are no city buildings, yet on the other side, at Kavos, where the Navy has the old pillboxes there is nothing. Of course, we will not build any hotels there; we are preparing projects in cooperation with the local community, which will help the development of the area.

The last example is Syros. Some people from the Emirates came and proposed us a huge investment for the creation of a mega yacht centre at Syros, which, apart from the construction of new yachts and the repair will also include a parallel shipping register and the greek flag. This may allow all pleasure yachts approach up to 60 metres around the Greek flag. This may create employment for deck and engineer room personnel. This may also bring income to the naval fund.

These were some examples of how we think in the Ministry of National Defence – and of course as a partner of the government – how to manage, with you because without you nothing can be done, to build a different future for our country. How we can break this relation of corruption and not allow those who blink an eye to the administration or see the administration blinking an eye to them, to “grab” them; how we can become a lever of growth for all these companies that resisted so far during the difficult times of this crisis; how we can create more employment posts, produce wealth and, eventually, reduce bureaucracy and this morbid situation created after the dictatorship for which we all are responsible and for which I too admit my part of responsibility.

Thank you very much.”