ATHENS — The foreign trade sector is proving resilient and supporting the Greek economy, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday in his address to the conference of the Panhellenic Exporters Association, describing this development as a "small feat".

As Mitsotakis said, his goal is the "Greece that produces, Greece that exports" and he estimated that despite the difficulties of the pandemic, foreign trade can again become the vehicle for the country's return to development. He noted that "our exports are proving resilient: In the first nine months of 2020, they reached 17.5 billion, exceeding by 253 million the corresponding performance of 2019."

Mitsotakis said that exports also proved to be flexible, because losses – for example, in the petroleum sector – were immediately replaced by the significant increases in exports of medicines, food, chemicals and metallurgical products.

At the same time, the prime minister also referred to the simultaneous reduction of imports during the same period, which fell by 6 billion euros, improving the trade balance.

As Mitsotakis said, this small feat was based on two pillars: The insight of Greek entrepreneurship, on the one hand, and the support of the government, on the other hand, with the premier noting that all export trade services have now been integrated under the coordination of the foreign ministry.

Regarding government support for exports, the prime minister said that corporate taxation is gradually de-escalating, as are bureaucratic burdens on new investment, while Enterprise Greece is also being reformed and the country has a National Strategic Extroversion Plan with 85 actions.

These actions, Mitsotakis explained, have a single goal: "To keep Greek society upright and the national economy battle-ready for the day after Covid-19."