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Chart 18Graph 13.1. Distance to Frontier of Ease of Doing Business (Frontier=100)Chart 19Graph 13.2. Average time for Business Registration (days)European CommissionThe Second Economic Adjustment Programme for Greece. Fourth ReviewBox 13. Reforms of Business RegistrationStructural reforms in support of investment, productivity and competitiveness have been a priority for Greece's crisisresponse in the late 2000s. Restrictions to entry and on fees or prices led to high rents, low innovation, and low productivity.In particular, Greece had one of the most restrictive systems of product market regulations, as measured by OECD indicators.Along with reforming labour markets, improving Greece's competitiveness required freeing up product markets andentrepreneurship. A key aspect of the reform of business regulations is the simplification of procedures for business start-ups.In order to overcome the fragmentation in business registration procedures and databases, the Government launched on April4, 2011 the General Electronic Commercial Registry (GEMI). Serving 2,200 notaries and the 59 Chambers of Commerce,this system provides a unified registry of companies. GEMI has registered all companies created since April 4, 2011 and reregisteredcompanies created previously. Through the so-called one-stop shop, GEMI allows the electronic processing ofscanned copies of documents for business creation and the profiling of company details via the business database(www.businessportal.gr). GEMI is also connected to TAXIS, the tax authority's electronic database for the provision of thecompany's tax identification number and the entrepreneur's tax certificates.Apart from simplifying the procedures for business registration, Greece also established a new company type. As part of theBusiness Friendly Greece law of 2012, Greece introduced a new form of limited liability company ("IKE") with no minimumcapital requirement. Such companies also benefit from additional simplifications, such as no social security certificate, nodocumentation of the official company seat and no mandatory drafting of articles of association by a notary.Three indicators confirm that business regulations have indeed been simplified:• The World Bank's Doing Business report highlighted Greece's reforms to simplify starting a business through thecreation of GEMI and the introduction of a new limited liability company with no capital requirement. Thanks to thesemeasures, Greece closed the gap towards global best practices more than any other country during July 2012 to June2013, and jumped 110 ranks to 36th position among 189 countries. This is Greece's best ranking among the 10dimensions of ease of doing business (Graph 13.1). Greece closed the distance to the frontier, defined as the bestperformance across all economies across time, from 33 percent in the Doing Business Report 2011 to 11 percent in theDoing Business Report 2014.• The simplification of business registration has reduced the time needed to set up a company since early 2013, with theexception of the Societe Anonyme which saw little change (Graph 13.2). In addition, the reforms have made setting upcompanies less costly (Graph 13.3).• Since early 2013, IKE has become the most popular company type for setting up a limited liability company (Graph13.4). Apart from the absence of a minimum capital requirement, this is explained by the short start up time and the lowcosts. The estimated administrative burden and charges for setting up a company as IKE are EUR116, compared to closeto EUR300 for a regular limited liability company.For further simplifications of business registration, better coordination of key agencies will be important. This would involvethe coordination of system development, upgrades and new services, as well as the integration of data management andsharing across key agencies.10090807060504030Starting a BusinessGraph 13.1: Distance to Frontier of Ease ofDoing Business (Frontier=100)Trading Across BordersPaying TaxesDB2014Deal. withConstruct. PermitsGetting ElectricitySource: World Bank Doing Business 2014Getting CreditProtecting InvestorsRegistering PropertyDB2011Enforcing ContractsResolving Insolvency109876543210Graph 13.2: Average time for BusinessRegistration (days)SA LTD PP LP IKEBefore 31/12/2012 Since 1/1/2013Source: GEMI, Ministry of Development 2014.54
Chart 20Graph 13.3. Total Costs (Administrative Burden and Charges) for Business Registration (Euro)Chart 21Graph 13.4. Business Entry (number)3. Programme implementation4,0003,5003,0002,5002,0001,5001,0005000BEFORE OSSGraph 13.3: Total Costs (AdministrativeBurden and Charges) for BusinessRegistration (Euro)AFTER OSS1,032TODAYBEFORE OSSAFTER OSS299TODAYBEFORE OSSAFTER OSS125 125 116TODAYBEFORE OSSAFTER OSSTODAYBEFORE OSSAFTER OSSTODAY100009000800070006000500040003000200010000Graph 13.4: Business Entry (number)PersonalPartnerships (PP)Personal LimitedCompanies (IKE)LimitedParternships (LP)Limited LiabilityCompanies (LTD)SocieteAnonyme (SA)SA LTD PP LP IKEOSS stands for one-stop shop | Source: GEMI, Ministry of Development 2014.Before 31/12/2012 Since 1/1/2013Source: GEMI, Ministry of Development 2014.3.5.2. The Retail Sector104. The Government has taken additional steps to improve the regulatory framework since July2013. The authorities simplified licensing procedures of retail outlets, including reducing the time forapprovals related to public health standards. As part of the investment licensing reform, theGovernment also intends to abolish pre-licensing requirements for retail shops. In addition, theauthorities expect to remove additional restrictions on outdoor trade by May, includingrecommendations from the OECD competition assessment. For pharmacies, the authorities allowed thesales of over-the-counter products with the exception of drugs outside of pharmacies and replaced thefixed mark-up by maximum mark-up, removed minimum distance requirements, and easedestablishment restrictions. The Government also reduced the minimum duration period for commercialrentals from 12 to 16 years to 3 years in February 2014. The authorities liberalised tourist rentals inMarch 2014 by reducing the threshold under which a lease is considered tourist rental from threemonths to one month.3.5.3. Regulated professions and professional qualifications105. The liberalisation of key professions is proceeding. The Government adopted in September 2013 anew Code of Lawyers to replace the original Code from 1954. They have also taken steps to liberaliseother professions, including actuaries, chartered valuers, electricians, geo-technicians, one-day clinics,the sales of plant-protecting material, fertilisers and pesticides, and TV technicians (see Box 14 for anoverview of the reforms in recent years). Following the opinion of the Hellenic CompetitionCommission, the Government adopted legal amendments to remove unjustified or disproportionatereserve activities of engineers, architects, geologists and land surveyors in March 2014, and intends toadopt the implementing provisions by the end of the year. It has set up a monitoring system of highfrequencyindicators such as new entrants and price changes for the main professions. The authoritieswill commission a survey to identify any remaining excessive restrictions across regulated professionsand remove any such identified restrictions later in the year.106. The necessary measures to ensure effective implementation of EU rules on the recognition ofprofessional qualifications are being adopted. After long delays, the authorities have taken thenecessary steps to ensure that the online submission of applications for the recognition of professionalqualifications is fully operational through the Greek Point of Single Contact.55
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