Survey by the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute published on Wednesday says Greece has risen to 47th place, a jump of 12 positions, out of 130 countries monitored, but still has work to do
Despite the country’s protracted recession, Greek entrepreneurship has improved since last year according to the Washington-based Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI) for 2014-15, but is impeded by chronic bureaucracy, corruption and negative attitudes towards entrepreneurship.
Greece placed 47th out of 130 countries, a jump of 12 positions – a 10% gain since last year which monitored 121 countries.
The GEDI survey examines 14 factors to assess a country's entrepreneurship levels.
“Greece’s strongest pillar is start-up skills, but this may be due to the country’s large grey economy, and its small business orientation, as it has few high-growth new businesses,” the survey said.
It added that Greece has ‘reasonable strengths’ in human capital, technology absorption but it lags in the general approach to entrepreneurship.
“It shows major bottlenecks in opportunity perception, risk acceptance, high growth aspirations and cultural support,” the survey said.
However, the country’s biggest problem, according to survey is its bureaucracy.
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“Perhaps the biggest problem is Greece’s notorious bureaucracy , which constitutes a real hindrance to entrepreneurial enterprise”.
The survey concludes that Greece still has its work cut out for it to move economic activity from the grey economy to the formal economy and “in harnessing its entrepreneurial potential to economic growth”
“Greece could draw inspiration from Iceland and Ireland, both of which were hard hit by the economic downturn but have emerged from the recession and entered a steady growth part,” it said.