With the Olympics nearly over, the government's central concern is now focused on the post-Olympic management of the infrastructure that Greece has created to host the Games, Deputy Environment Minister Themistocles Xanthopoulos said on Friday during a press conference to present a comprehensive volume listing the entire range of Olympic projects - from stadiums to transport networks - entitled "The Victory Projects".

"I myself could not believe that so much could be done in such a short space of time and so well, with such high quality," he said, describing the frantic last-minute efforts to complete everything on time. He stressed that all sides had pulled together to create the infrastructure that had worked flawlessly during the Games, proving wrong gloomy predictions about 'half-finished' Olympics that had dominated press reports in the run-up to the Games .

He also noted that the Environment and Public Works ministry had shouldered the major burden of these preparations, which he said accounted for some 80 per cent of the total and covered sports facilities, complex transport and road-building infrastructure, as well as extensive improvements to public spaces within the greater urban area of Athens, such as revamping squares, creating disabled access and planting trees and greenery.
Deciding who would now manage this costly infrastructure and quickly passing the necessary legislation before it started to decline was now an urgent priority, Xanthopoulos said.

General Secretary for Information Panos Livadas highlighted the benefits Greece would reap from its Olympic effort, stressing that the image of the country worldwide was now that Greeks could work together and achieve.
"We have once again placed ourselves on the map and made the world aware of us," he said, noting that Greece had developed and that the entire global community had been there to see.

Apart from the physical infrastructure, he added, the legacy of the Games included the state-of-the-art training and know-how acquired by the Greek workforce and business, the transformation undergone by the public sector, which had been forced to drop past practices and work quickly, and a blossoming and valuable spirit of volunteerism that the Olympics had inspired.

Livadas said the government was placing priority on a unified communications policy to 'reposition and rebrand' Greece to follow through and promote these relative advantages, one that would ensure that the message sent out was not fragmented.

Christos Hatziemmanuil, representing Hellenic Olympic Properties SA that will be responsible for the management of the sports facilities created for the Olympics, stressed that there remained the task of drawing up detailed estimates of the cost, most of which directly burdened the tax-payer. He said noted that many of the projects used in the Olympics had not been officially turned over to the state and accepted and that additional work might be needed in some cases to complete them.

He also stressed the immaterial benefits from the Games, pointing out that the logistical capacity to organize major projects could now be listed as a new competitive advantage for Greece.
"From a pleasant destination with 'Zorba' inhabitants, were are now seen as a modern country with high level organization and infrastructure," he said, announcing a promotion campaign highlighting 'Greece of wonders'.

On the use of the facilities, he said this needed a systematic approach, in order to avoid flooding the market with services that were in direct competition with each other and said the focus would be on tourism, culture, sports and high-level recreation. He said management of the facilities should be achieved through cooperation between the state and private-sector, with strict observance of fiscal discipline. He also stressed the potential of such facilities in assisting the development of under-privileged areas, such as Ano Liosia and Nikaia.

Representing the Greek business community, Federation of Greek Industry chairman Odysseas Kyriakopoulos called for a strategy to pass Olympics infrastructure to the private sector and not burden the state budget with the cost of their maintenance. He said the management of the projects by the state sector was a worrying prospect, noting that the state had so far failed in all attempts at business endeavor.

He said an integrated strategy for the management of Olympic facilities with specific goals was required and reiterated the need for specific laws against bureaucracy, underlining that the state had to extricate itself from the legal framework it had created and create an environment that was friendly to business, stressing that less red tape and more 'security' for capital was more important in this effort than tax incentives.

Source: Athens News Agency

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