Editorial Ta Nea: Automatic pilot

Investment activity in recent days – including the plans of Volkswagen to set up a test drive facility on the island of Thasos and the purchase by a domestic aircraft carrier, Aegean Airlines, of new aeroplanes (photo) – indicates that for the first time in many years a climate of trust in the Greek economy is developing.

At long last something is starting to move after a long period of stagnation that gave way to an even longer, major recession.

That in no way means that the economy is now running on an automatic pilot like those with which aircraft – and soon automobiles – are equipped.

The investment-friendly posture of the government gave impetus to these positive developments but it must still craft policies that will help drive the economy and lead it to even more fertile ground.

It has a duty to firmly establish an attractive economic environment to draw in more investments that will create jobs.

Job creation is the overarching aim so that society can prosper even as the economy grows.

To achieve that objective the government must move swiftly.

From that perspective recent investment activity is only the beginning of a race that requires the kind of deft manoeuvres which no automatic pilot can deliver.