Doing Business in Greece

Introduction Greece is an extraordinary country rich in ancient civilization, famous for giving birth to democracy! According to (Business culture, 2014) Greece is an open economy that relies heavily on the service sector, while the remaining national output comes from the industry and agricultural sectors. On top of that Greece is still a significant agricultural and fisheries producer for Europe, but the tourist industry will always be the basis of the Greek economy, which Greece ranks 7th in the most visited countries in EU. It is approximately the same size as New York. It is located in southeastern part of Europe, hanging right down by the beautiful Mediterranean Sea, just east of Italy. Greek culture is rich in dramas, rhetoric, music, and philosophy dating back to Greece’s classical era. It is home to the mythological characters and their popular stories world-wide, The Greek Gods and Goddesses that we’ve watch in multiple movies and cartoon shows growing up, originated from this beautiful country. The most recent highlight from Greece is Sparta, the Hollywood movie 300, which showcases the historical connection between Greece and Persia. Greece finally became an independent nation in the 1800’s, joined the European community in 1981, and became a member of the economic/monetary union at the beginning of 2001 before their economic downfall.
Demographics
As stated in (Konstandaras, 2013) the total population of Greece is around 11 million and slowly growing, the current employed population is estimated 3.8 million people. A good majority of the population lives in the Piraeus and Athens which is the main location of about 50% of Greek Commerce Industry. Also a number of Islands located on the southern edge of Greece near the Aegean Sea. The Islands population is ever expanding due to retired European residents who prefer to reside on the islands around Greece because of cost of living and the weather is amazing year around. Official language of Greece is of course Greek, but English and French are right behind it, widely spoken among the younger generation, followed up by Spanish, Italian, and Chinese, with country having tourism as their base for their economics, I’m sure many languages can be understood. Christian is the main religion, with about 97% of the Greek population belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church and remaining percent is divided amongst the Jewish, Muslim, and Catholic.
The working hours are pretty wonky with their banks opening around 8 am and closing at 2:30pm, Monday to Friday and the public sector follows suit. Seems like the Greeks like to get off early every day, might be why there is economic crisis. The private sector jobs range from 8am to 2pm as well, but some range from 9am to 5pm. Greece is in the Eastern European Time Zone and adheres to EET (UTC +2) during winter and EET (UTC +3) for daylight saving time during the summer months. Hard to find any opportunity with these wonky hours to bring or even start a business in Greece. Political and Legal Environment The current political structure in Greece revolves around a parliamentary republic with the government and prime minister that hold executive power; also a president who is elected by the 300 members of parliament and servers a five year term. Like the United States there are currently two major parties in control out of five parties that are represented in parliament. Those two parties that hold majority of the voting body are the socialists (PASOK) and the conservative party (NEA Dimokratia). As reported by (globaledge, 2014) the challenge/risk of doing business in Greece is extremely high, do the contradictions between the requirements imposed by the providers of the rescue finance and the need to limit social tensions. Since the political ruling currently is so fragile, the government could fall into another political crisis and further delays in the implementation of economic reform. The legal