Athens Chamber president Bratakos: Innovation, digital tech hub for start-ups a priority

The president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ACCI or EBEA), Yannis Bratakos, on Tuesday said the latter’s “entrepreneurship incubator” will be transformed into a business accelerator, in remarks during his meeting at the chamber’s offices with Luxembourg’s new ambassador to Greece, Elisabeth Cardoso, and other embassy officials.

According to a press release issued by the chamber, Bratakos cited ACCI’s priorities for growth of exports, as well as attracting more investments from abroad and domestically.

Asked about the situation with small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country, the ACCI president said “Greece is a country with one of the highest, proportionately, number of SMEs in the world. What we want is to marshal these (SMEs) together so that they possess greater competitiveness vis-à-vis similar competitors abroad,” he said, adding:

“Moreover, the European model for an SME is much larger than the corresponding Greek one. Therefore, no matter how good a performance the domestic one may have, the Greek SME cannot compete with the similar such company in Germany, France or Belgium.”

Bratakos noted that the current government is reinforcing SMEs by offering incentives in order to facilitate mergers, buyouts and to boost their competitiveness.

In terms of hands-on initiatives, he said ACCI will proceed with the creation of an innovation and digital technology “hub” in downtown Athens to facilitate the transfer of know-how between start-ups, with the aim being to expand as an entrepreneurship center covering the entire country.