Within the framework of the events of the 'Athens Business Club' that are recently taking place in the Saroglio building in Athens, the Athens Exchange organized a business luncheon, which more than 200 Greek and foreign businessmen, bank directors, and embassies representatives attended. In particular, Mr.Sioufas, Minister of Development and chief financial executives of the Greek government discussed the prospects of the Greek Capital Market.

Mr.Petros Doukas, Deputy Minister of Finance and Mr.Jacob Georganas, Chairman of the Hellenic Exchanges Group of Companies (HELEX S.A.) were also co-speakers in the aforesaid event.

Moreover, Mr.Paul-Spyros Sarbanis, the Greek-American Democratic Senator, who arrived for a short sojourn in Greece ?in light of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games-also attended the meeting. It is worth mentioning that Mr.Sarbanis is widely known for the famous ?Sarbanis-Oxley Act?, which concerns the financial audits of multinational companies and was voted after the big economic scandals broke out in the United States.

Mr.P.Doukas, Deputy Minister of Finance, referred to the following as the most significant challenges the new government has to face:

a) The reformation of the tax system, without the decrease of revenues.

b) The holding down of the deficit and military expenses
c) The full absorption of the Community Support Framework
d) The decrease in red tape and the retraction of co-responsibilities.
e) The speed-up of the privatization procedures
f) The attraction of private funds in projects of the Public sector.
g) The enhancement of the role of the Greek Stock Exchange for raising funds for companies and servicing investors? interests.
h) The modernization of the Greek labor market, as to create new jobs in more beneficial terms.

Senator Sarbanis, during his brief speech referred to the progress Greece has made both in terms of its institutions and the economy, in general. In particular, Mr. Sarbanis said that Greeks could now optimistically gaze the future, as they now have the chance to utilize to the maximum their heritage and current success in the organization of the Olympic Games, to take advantage of the geographical and geopolitical advantages of the country and the great quality of its people.

In summary, the conclusions of the aforementioned meeting are as follows:

• The international economic environment could be stabilized towards a more positive direction, which, in turn would favorably affect the Greek economy (tourism, shipping, exports, economic services).

• Improvements in Greek infrastructure will continue in the following years, as significant public projects would be carried out and would be financed either by national resources, the 2nd and 3rd Community Support Frameworks, which will operate until 2013 or by self-financing methods.

• The mix of the economic policy that will be implemented by the new Government will secure stability, on the one hand, while at the same time, will promote development and social coherence and would pave the way for significant investment activity ?both from private foreign and local funds-in various sectors of the Greek economy, namely, tourism, energy, industry, transportation, telecommunications and financial services (banks, insurances, portfolio management, etc).

In such an environment, expectations for the stabilization and development of the capital market are increasingly gaining ground.