In the following, Mr.Marinakis extended his warmest thanks to all the members of the previous Boards of Directors for their hard and good work they have done, to all the Chamber Members and especially the 18 Sustaining Members, without the participation and support of which, it would have been impossible for the Chamber to have the results it has achieved, as he said.
Mr.Marinakis welcomed and thanked the new members of the Chamber in 2009 and all participants in the event and he particularly expressed his sincere and warm thanks to the sponsors of this event, of which the video clips were screened on the videowall, for their invaluable support and economic contribution to the Chamber. Gold Sponsors of this event were ASTRA ZENECA, ELOUNDA S.A., PANTELIS PAPADOPOULOS SA and SCA HYGIENE S.A., Silver Sponsors were ERICSSON HELLAS, PETROS PETROPOULOS SA, ORIFLAME HELLAS LTD. and SARAKAKIS BROS SA and Bronze Sponsors were ALFA LAVAL S.A.and law firm "METAXAS & ASSOCIATES". Media Sponsor was INFOPUBLICA S.A.

And he continued saying :
As you know, the most important objective of our Chamber is to enhance and enlarge the economic and commercial relations between the two countries.
While the commercial transactions between the two countries, as it results from certain data, were constantly being increased until also 2007, things changed from 2008 and then onwards.
At this difficult concurrence of the economic crisis, commercial transactions were decreased significantly in both countries but we hope that the so much-desired recovery will not delay very much.
For, my dear friends, we may have witnessed the first indications and messages from the IMF that the international economic crisis, in general, as well as in the Eurozone is subsiding. Nevertheless, no one can guarantee that recovery will come here to stay, especially in our country, whose economic structure is characterised by certain particularities.
Our economy, with its chronic distortions and fiscal burdens, is being plighted hard, which we are constantly experiencing all the time as businessmen.
The two countries' commercial transactions have been decreased significantly. I state to you that Sweden's exports to Greece were decreased by 27% and Greece's exports to Sweden by 32% during the 1st six-month time period of 2009. However, I will not refer to this issue any further.
Let as all wait to hear one of the most distinguished experts on this issue, Mr. John Stournaras, Professor of Economics at the University of Athens and scientific counselor of the IOVE.
In our opinion, exercising a realistic, stable, coherent reformatory economic policy is required and not only money-collecting or fragmentary measure so that we may go out the current crisis and recovery of a permanent nature take place. We are all looking forward to such policy from the new administration of our country that will stimulate market and trigger development.
Tonight we have the honor to have with us the General Secretary of Ministry of Economy, Mr.Elias Plaskovitis.
The Counsellor of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs Chrysanthi Passadi
The Ambassador of Sweden in Greece, Mr. Hakan Malmqvist. I welcome him and I thank him very much.
Also, tonight they are together wiith us :
The Ambassadors of Esthonia, Mr. Andres Talvik, of Ireland, Mr.Antoin Mac Unfraidh, of Latvia, Mrs Liga Bergmane, of Netherlands, Mr.Kees van Rij and of Bulgaria, Mr.Andrei Karaslavov.
The Trade and Commercial Attaches of Cyprus, Mr.Andreas Selipas, of Great Britain, Mrs.Christina Paleologou, of Finland, Mrs Jaana Oikarinen-Vassilopoulos, of Austria, Mr.Bruno Freytag, of Belgium, Mr. Jean Jacques Manigart, of France, Mrs Effie Fraze, of Italy Mr.Giuseppe Giacalone and of Poland, Mr.VictorAnselem.
The Consul General of Sweden in Piraeus, Mr.Nick Theodoridis , the Consul in Athens Mrs Kerstin Henriksson and the representatives of Swedish Trade Council in Athens, Messrs Demetrios Oreopoulos and Chris Soderman.
We have also with us a person who feels very friendly for Sweden, the Mayor of Vrilissia, Mr.Constantinos Ioannides
The Presidents or General Secretaries of Chambers of Commerce, Greek-French, Mr.Christoforos Hatzopoulos, Greek-German Mr.Martin Knapp and Greek-Netherlands Consul, Mr.Vassilios Varoutas.
We have also the honor to have as our special guest and speaker the Professor of Economics at the Athens University, Mr.Yannis Stournaras and also the head of Italian Investment Bank IMI, Mr.Christoforos Sardelis..
But, in this point and before I call the main speaker to the floor, I would like to ask from the Ambassador of Sweden in Greece, Mr.Hakan Malmqvist, to address our guests.

Mr. Hakan Malmqvist took the floor and addressed to the participants saying :
Mr Marinakis, Members of the Board, Excellencies, Sponsors of this event, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm glad to attend the annual meeting of the Hellenic-Swedish Chamber of Commerce once again! I predicted at our meeting a year ago that we could anticipate a tough 2009 with economic recession and an increase in unemployment within the entire EU. As we took on the Presidency of the EU in July we stated clearly that one of our top three priorities would be to seek a common EU approach in trying to counter the effects of the economic crisis and to get the EU MS to agree on concerted efforts in order to stimulate economic growth.
Now we know that the economic and financial crisis posed severe challenges to the world economy and resulted in the most difficult economic downturn since the 1930s. To tackle the crisis, the EU and its Member States implemented a wide range of extraordinary measures including the European Economic Recovery Plan from December 2008. The support measures have been crucial in order to restore confidence in financial markets and assure their proper functioning as well as to dampen the impact of the crisis on growth and employment.
Finally, it looks as if the economic situation is a bit more stable and that confidence is increasing. A weak recovery is expected in 2010, followed by a return to stronger growth in 2011. But uncertainties and fragilities remain. Policies in support of the economy should therefore remain in place and only be withdrawn when recovery is fully secured. In order to anchor expectations and reinforce confidence, we think it is important to develop and communicate credible and coordinated strategies for exiting from the broad-based stimulus policies.
Our Finance ministers met yesterday in Brussels and reached important agreements on a new financial supervisory structure as well as implementation of fiscal exit strategies. The financial crisis has clearly demonstrated the weaknesses of the current regulatory framework and supervisory arrangements for financial institutions. The Council has now agreed on a fundamentally new structure for financial supervision in Europe. This new structure is set up to prevent future bubbles and crises in the economy and re-establish confidence of consumers and investors in the markets.
A complete package for a new supervisory framework in the European Union will now hopefully be realised, pending the clearance by the European Parliament. A new European Systemic Risk Board will provide the European Union with a system for monitoring macro-economic risks and issue risk warnings and recommendations. The three new supervisory authorities for banks, insurance and securities markets respectively will develop common technical standards, have a strong co-ordinating role in supervisory colleges and will ensure the consistent application of Community law.
There is also a proposal put to the next European Council of a general approach regarding amendments to the Capital Requirements Directive, as a further step to strengthen the financial regulation in light of the financial crisis. It enhances the capital requirements for certain banking activities and introduces clear and binding rules on remuneration, consistent with those endorsed by G 20 leaders. Remuneration policies within the financial sector must promote sound and effective risk management and should contribute to preventing future crises in the economy.
The Finance ministers also decided on new and existing excessive deficit procedures within the framework of the Stability and Growth Pact, which remains the cornerstone of the EU's budgetary framework.. These procedures are an important step in establishing country specific fiscal exit strategies. The recommendations to the countries in Excessive Deficit Procedure, which were adopted yesterday by the Economic and Financial Council, are an important tool for restoring sound public finances.
In addition there is a need for more broad-based exit strategies, taking into account also the need to wind down financial support schemes. It is crucial to develop a coordinated approach, taking account of financial stability, that introduces progressive incentives for financial institutions to cease to depend on public financial support.
Our Heads of Government will now discuss and decide on these measures next week at their last meeting during our Presidency.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I will not go deeper into the economic situation since we have a real expert waiting to take the floor. Let us hope that 2010 will see further steps towards getting our national economies and thereby also our common European economy in order. And that this in turn will serve also the commercial interests and opportunities for our bilateral trade and investments.
Thank you for listening!

In the following, Mr.Marinakis expressed his thanks to the Ambassador, Mr. Hakan Malmqvist for his very interesting speech and invited the main speaker, Mr. Yannis Stournaras, Professor of Economics at the Athens University to take the floor (speech of Mr.Stournaras on page 10).
Mr.Marinakis presenting his congratulations and thanks to Mr.Stournaras for his very interesting speech and the honor he afforded the Chamber, invited him to receive the commemorative plaque of the Chamber.

And Mr.Marinakis continued saying :
As you know, during last years we have established an institution and every year we award the "Member of the year" prize. This year the prize is awarded to PETROS PETROPOULOS S.A. for its overall contribution to the Chamber. I am calling Mr.John Petropoulos to come and take the commemorative plaque.

Finally, Mr. Marinakis said : I would like also tonight, on behalf of the Board of Directors, to award the members-companies which considerably and in many ways supported the Chamber during 2008. These companies are : Oriflame Hellas Ltd, Vacar S.A., Pantelis Papadopoulos S.A., Saracakis Bros S.A., Astra Zeneca S.A., Combitrans Hellas Ltd., Agelinco S.A. The Chamber as recognition to their contribution, expresses its sincere thanks and awards them with the commemorative plaque of the Chamber.

Mr. Marinakis expressed his thanks again to all the participants and wished them to enjoy their dinner and the rest of the evening.

The Greek economy in search of a strategy
Targets and instruments for a total rehabilitation, 2010-2020