To the Government of Greece
13 August 2020
Dear Sirs,
I am a Netherlands national, pensioned and now resident in Greece, Corfu, after having lived in 7 countries and having owned and directed 8 companies in information and 3D technology in 5 countries. I am fluent in 5 languages and still have to learn Greek. (sorry its difficult)
I very much appreciate living here in a country of beauty and surrounded with people who are very friendly, helpful, intelligent and speak multiple languages. One is immediately at home.
We are currently living in very difficult times for the whole world, where a small number of criminal people have created a plandemic for a barely existing disease, bringing the economies on their knees. It is a pity to see the different governments apparently have no intelligent response to this malicious warfare directed at their people.
What I would like to put your attention to, is the amazing amount of waste of time in administration in Greece to get anything done. This must cost the economy a great amount of money, which could be put to better use.
Since probably the previous amount of tourism will never come back to Greece, because of the scamdemic, other means of income and occupation for Greek people need to be developed.
I have seen in the news papers that Greece would want to become a tech country to the level of California. This seems very utopic to me. High tech needs certain types of minds.
Technology
I am daily confronted with Greek websites for paying bills and getting information. NONE of these function correctly. One can choose English language, but often at the next important screen it will be all in Greek language and not understandable. Sites are blocked, error 404, etc it really is a big mess and very badly programmed. It is clear that programmers have had no correct schooling.
Whether on sites of internet companies such as Cosmote, Wind, Vodafone that are immensely badly programmed, then the electricity, water, government, Tepai sites, you name it nothing works correctly.
At crucial moments when one has to confirm or pay, the whole program goes down and will not accept you anymore.
IT IS A MAJOR DISASTER.
So I suggest to import some REAL programmers from English based countries to get the Greek internet working for everyone.
This will save millions of wasted hours for government and population.
I personally developed 5 years ago a simple program for Greek insurance agents for boat insurance that they could fill in Greek language, auto translate to English for London based insurers to approve, and provide the agent with all necessary documents in ENG and GR to finalise the insurance. It took 2 weeks to develop and functioned without a hitch for 4 years. Its logic.
Buying property is a major hurdle.
We personally bought a villa in Corfu. First visit in October 2019, made an offer, offer accepted between seller and buyer begin November. Money ready to pay.
Then come notary, 2 lawyers, 2 building surveyors all discussing the problems and pitfalls of the administrative offices. This goes on for weeks. Basically advising the buyer (me) not to buy, because there are too many problems, part of a fence 30cm displaced, 0,80 sqm of the villa not properly registered, etc.
5 meetings further, I decided this is enough, draw a contract now and we settle.
More objections. Finally we signed a pre-contract 20 December and paid in full.
Later it needed an accountant to do some more silly paperwork.
I received the final deed, signed and stamped on: August 10, 2020 !!!!
It took 9 months and there was no dispute between parties.
The government really has to seriously look into all this over the top administration to get anything done.
I bought houses in Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and France and from start to finish with only a notary it took no more than 1 to 2 months.
Something definitely to work on.
Importing small things outside EU.
I bought some health supplements from the USA (which I have imported for the last 15 years in other EU countries). It took the customs 6 weeks to inspect and pass, after having paid 45% duties on the product price plus the transport cost!
I am in the process of liberating a package from the customs.
It concerns a wooden light archery bow for training.
It has been sitting at customs for 4 weeks. there have been 22 email exchanges.
Customs want the original order, a full description what is in the package, an original statement from the bank of the payment of 84€!!!
Not enough the police want to see my Olympic license, for a bare bow which does not feature in any Olympic discipline.
I am a gold medalist for bare bow archery and pro instructor. I have been sending copy of club membership, pictures of medals and me on podiums.
Here we are looking at something like 10 people occupied for hours on end to clear a simple package with a value of 84€.
There is something terribly wrong with this administration.
Also in view that the Costco Piraeus port probably the largest Chinese port in Europe will let anything through, otherwise the whole port would come to a grinding halt.
So my personal advice to save Greece from total ruin is to spend less time on facemasks, restaurant idiocy, a-social distancing for a small flu that 99,9% of people will not die of.
More than 60% of all Greek restaurants and hotels will never open again, because they are bankrupt. Most small business will close forever. Rents will not be paid. Small B&B rentals will all be abandoned and fall in ruins. Ports will be littered with boats unattended and sinking.
Maybe look at Sweden. Let the Greek people decide to wear a slave mask or not.
Look after the real sick people who need operations and other interventions.
The flu we have all had once and its part of life.
Try to keep Greece alive
My best regards
Roy Hulsbergen
.