I listened to Kostis Hatzidakis* and my soul “whitened”.

When I heard the Minister of National Economy and Finance speak at the Grant Thornton conference in Thessaloniki, in a large, crowded hall, I thought everything he said was an April Fool's joke. It seemed unbelievable to me. The man did not say what he would do – since in “will” much can be said – but what happened. What he described in his short speech was a lot.

Kostis Hatzidakis said that from 2019 to 2023, six out of ten jobs will require digital skills. Precisely because these needs exist, 170,000 digital workers have already been trained, with significant and certified training. Which I believe will have nothing to do with the faulty training seminars of the past that were just eating up the community's money.

Another interesting element that appeared in his speech was the repatriation of approximately 350,000 Greeks out of 600,000 who left our country during the period of the memoirs. Returnees receive tax incentives and more. The goal is to return the remaining 250,000. There is no doubt that this return of this magnitude is considered a national success, because it concerns primarily young people with a high level of education.

What I also liked is that OAED, an organization from the past that was stagnant, today collaborates with multinational giants like Amazon, Cisco, Google, and Microsoft. He's cooperating, no, he'll be cooperating. I wrote at the beginning that I would not refer to the Minister's “will”, although I must stress that it is also important who says this “will”. If a politician who has abandoned his effectiveness credentials – such as Kostis Hatzidakis – says this, it will soon cease to be a promise and become a reality. Therefore, such a “will” has a different weight.

So everything is rosy? no. The Minister was very specific about the delay observed in the absorption of funds, the existing lag in fixed capital investments compared to the European average, and the presence of hundreds of thousands of small companies that above all distort competition. Which makes business mergers inevitable.

In the end, the big picture I get from Kostis Hatzidakis' speech is that there are ministers who not only produce work – they all eventually leave something in one form or another – but who change the entire landscape in their area of ​​responsibility. They are moving forward with reforms, some working quietly, others with more noise, but all of them moving methodically, having formed groups of collaborators who solve the problems that arise. Because behind every successful minister is a team that produces work under his guidance.

If today's political news is grey, whoever listens to Kostis Hatzidakis and the other speakers will find that there is a Greece that produces and toils, a Greece that wants to leap forward.

*To avoid evil thoughts, today I shook hands with the minister for the first time, from afar and in the middle of the audience.