ATHENS – Greece’s notorious bureaucracy, long infamous for long delays in granting licenses for business startups – and for bribery along the way – has apparently gotten so much better than the capital was ranked the 4^th best European city to get a company rolling.

A survey by UK website Takepayments put only Cambridge, Tallinn and Warsaw above Athens for the speed to get a business going in as little as four days with only three procedures, said Kathimerini.

That has become especially critical during the COVID-19 pandemic as the New Democracy government is trying to lure foreign investors and get domestic companies out of the chute faster.

has picked Athens as the fourth best European city for business enterprise.

There has been a 182 percent in the number of businesses registered since 2006, the survey found, which is the second highest in its rankings, despite the closing of scores of thousands during a 2010-18 economic and austerity crisis.

Athens has also built a reputation, thanks to entrepreneurs and young, skilled professionals, for innovative tech-based businesses gaining good reviews, especiall in the travel and hospitality sectors.

The new Enterprising Cities Index by Takepayments, ranked 37 European cities based on a range of factors relating to enterprise opportunity and growth, with Athens showing surprisingly well in ratings.

The research reveals Europe’s most enterprising cities by calculating a city score based on factors including:

-The number of startup procedures and the amount of days required to start a business according to the UN data and the World Bank

-The number of new businesses registered based on the same source

-The percentage growth in interest in starting a business on Google

-Economic Freedom Index score on a national level in 2022 based on Heritage data