Athens News Agency: News in English, 10-07-25

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Cyprus solution 'dividend' would run to billions, PRIO paper predicts

[02] Air traffic controllers' 'work-to'rule' action may delay flights

[03] Man wanted on international warrant arrested in Thessaloniki

[04] More than 750,000 registered in public sector census

[05] Pangalos refers to reshuffle

[01] Cyprus solution 'dividend' would run to billions, PRIO paper predicts

According to the research paper unveiled on July 22, Turkey stands to gain an estimated 17 billion euros a year, with new annual gross revenue of 12.3 billion euros and annual cost savings of 5.1 billion euros. This is equivalent to 3.5% of Turkey's GDP. A preview of benefits for Greece estimates savings in the region of three billion euros.

The research, entitled, The Day After III: The Cyprus dividend for Turkey and Greece, is the third in the series of Day After reports written by the three-woman team Ãzlem Onuz Ãilsal, Praxoula Antoniadou Kyriacou and Fiona Mullen.

The authors look beyond Cyprus to the region, analyzing the peace dividend that awaits Turkey after a solution that unites the island, while also previewing the benefits for Greece. As always, the estimates made by the three economists are based on analysis of hard statistical data. They find that Turkey will not only make significant savings from property litigation and military expenditure but also stands to make huge financial gains from the transformation of the Turkey-Cyprus-Greece region into one of lasting peace and stability. This, in turn, will have positive spillover effects for tourism, transport, financial and business services, and last, but not least, energy.

Indicatively, they see additional revenues of 3.3 billion euros per year in tourism and transport, an estimated 7 billion euros boost to financial and business services, two billion euros for exports and a potential 33 billion euros for foreign investment as a result of opening the energy chapter in the accession talks with the EU, currently blocked as a result of the Cyprus issue.

The authors also predict 5.1 billion euros per year in savings from property litigation (2.4 billion per year), military expenditure (2.2 billion euros per year) and from having to financially support the isolated Turkish-Cypriot regime in north Cyprus (480 million per year).

The authors' preview of the economic benefits to Greece identified savings of 2.3 billion euros per year in military expenditure, 50 million euros per year of income from gas transit, 110 million euros of additional tourism revenue and 19.8 billion euros per year in foreign direct investment.

In their first Day After report, the authors analyzed the main business opportunities that would arise from the reunification of Cyprus and quantified the peace dividend for the key sectors that would benefit. In their Day After II report, having researched the investment and reconstruction needs in the first few years, they went one step further by extending their analysis to the whole economy. They found that a peaceful solution that unites the island would generate EUR 12,000 per year per family on the island, create 33,000 new jobs and raise the real GDP growth rate by 3 percentage points per year on average for at least the first five years.

In an address at the launch of the report, Special Advisor to the Secretary-General on Cyprus Alexander Downer stressed that it was "a timely reminder of what business people on this island have been telling me for a long time: that a solution will bring huge opportunities for Cyprus, Turkey and Greece. And these benefits will long outlive any of the short-term costs".

[02] Air traffic controllers' 'work-to'rule' action may delay flights

The strike was called by the union in protest against pension reform plans and a halt to new recruitment.

[03] Man wanted on international warrant arrested in Thessaloniki

According to police, a 29-year-old man was arrested on an international warrant, who is wanted by the Albanian authorities for attempted homicide, causing bodily harm and perjury.

A 22-year-old woman was also arrested, on charges of perjury and harboring a criminal.

[04] More than 750,000 registered in public sector census

Sources in the General Secretariat of Information Systems told the ANA the finance and interior ministries now had sufficient data with which to carry out cross checks, a process expected to take a considerable amount of time. The secretariat expects an estimated 2 percent inaccuracy rate in the registrations.

As of November 1, public sector employees are to be paid via bank accounts by the newly formed Single Payment Authority. The registrations will also be used to set up a single electronic data base with the information of all public sector employees and, as of 2011, a uniform pay scale will be set up.

Once the procedure is complete, it will be the first time since the formation of the Greek State that there is an overall picture of the staff that receives a salary from the public sector.

[05] Pangalos refers to reshuffle

Replying to questions, Pangalos rejected criticism that the ruling PASOK party, as government, was doing the opposite of what it had been saying when it was the main opposition party, and stressed that the major reforms being advanced, such as that of the social security system, as well as the austere economic measures that have affected the largest part of the Greek society, are "necessary" in the sense that their aim is to streamline the public finances, ensure balance in the social security system, avoid default, and restore the country's credibility in the international markets.

Pangalos acknowledged possible delays and mistakes while, on media reports of disagreements and clashes among ministers, he stressed that "there is no such thing as a government without disagreements". The aim, he added, is a synthesis of all the views, which is in the interests of the country.

He expressed conviction that the Greek people's sacrifices will not be in vain, and criticised the opposition that every time a weakness of the government arises, it claps its hands in joy but doesn't present convincing alternative proposals.

Pangalos opined that main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Antonis Samaras was committing "political suicide" because he was trying to carry on with the failed policy of former premier and ex ND leader Costas Karamanlis.

As for the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), he said that it publicly expresses its opposition to the country's form of government and social system, while the other parties of the Left suffice in engaging in a "pseudo-revolutionary phraseology".

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