OECD makes hundreds of recommendations

The third so-called toolkit that the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has prepared to help improve competition in the Greek market was formally delivered to the government on Monday and contains 356 recommendations. The total benefit for the economy, if all of the organization’s recommendations are implemented, will come to 414 million euros according to conservative estimates.

The sectors covered in this latest assessment by the OECD were online commerce, con- struction, mass media, pharmaceuticals, wholesale commerce and chemical products manufacturing.

According to Greece’s commitments in the bailout agreement with its creditors, the recommendations in the toolkit will have to be implemented by the end of the year, which appears practically impossible. “It would take a gigantic effort for the proposed reforms to be implemented within deadline,” former economy minister Giorgos Stathakis, who is now energy minister, said upon receiving the toolkit from OECD Deputy Secretary-General Rintaro Tamaki.

It is noted that there some minor recommendations are still pending from the first and second toolkits, delivered in November 2013 and January 2015.

In the context of the third toolkit, the OECD assessed 1,288 laws and identified 577 regulatory obstacles which stem from the Greek legislative framework. The OECD study cost 1.3 million euros and was funded in its entirety by the European Commission.