GEK Terna Group executives stressed the need to prepare a National Strategic Infrastructure Plan, so that companies can take the proper business decisions and plan the required investments in skills, equipment and productivity improvement.
According to Petros Souretis, mandated consultant and executive officer in GEK Terna, and Alexandros Michailidis, deputy CEO and general technical director of Terna, the construction sector is on an upward trajectory, but faces significant problems and lags behind the rest of the European Union countries.
“Despite the positive progress of the Greek sector in recent years,” Souretis pointed out, speaking at a Greek Technical Chamber (TEE) conference, “Greece recorded the lowest rate of investment in construction as a percentage of GDP (4.8%) among EU countries where the average is maintained at 11.5%, with Romania at the top of the ranking reaching 16.7%.”
Explaining the necessity of National Strategic Infrastructure Planning, Michailidis noted that the construction industry needs to gain visibility in order to maintain its positive course.
Long-standing problems
Souretis added that “year-old pathologies of the construction market sector should be settled starting with the implementation of the price observatory which will solve the issue of the lack of revisions and the unreliable cost estimates of the projects that force the sector to execute projects based on the 2004 data.”
