This publication was produced in the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, as part of the programme of work of the Regional Development Policy Committee (RDPC). The review has been conducted in partnership with the Ministry of Development and Investments of Greece and the European Commission (EC) Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM). The review benefitted from the financial support of the EC.
Special thanks go to Dimitrios Skalkos (Secretary General for Public Investments and ESPA) and his predecessor Panogiotis Korkolis, Ioannis Firbas (General Director, National Coordination Authority for ESIF), Dimitrios Iakovidis (General Director for Public Investments), Maria Kostopoulou (Alternate Director, Special Service for Strategy, Planning and Evaluation), Dimitrios Troulakis (Director, Special Service for ESF Actions Coordination and Monitoring Authority), Dimitrios Fakitsas (Director, Special Service for Institutional Support) and to the members of the local team: Michail Goumas, Emmanouela Karapataki, Marina Koutsouri, Stavroula Pelekasi, Maria Pragiati, Petros Stavrou, Konstantinos Vlachos, Anastasia Zarkopoulou, Smaro Zissopoulou, Anastasia Arvaniti, Emmanouela Kourousi, Xristos Kyrkoglou, Kyriaki Manolopoulou, Georgia Tsoni, Ioannis Zirinis, as well as to the General Secretariat for the Coordination of Economic and Growth Policies. We are also grateful to George Petrakos (former Rector and professor at the Department of Planning and Regional Development, University of Thessaly) and Ioannis Psycharis (Director, Regional Development Institute, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences), who contributed as external consultants to the development of the review.
The review was co-ordinated by Stefano Barbieri, Senior Policy Analyst in the Regional Development and Tourism Division, under the supervision of Alain Dupeyras and Jose Enrique Garcilazo, Head and Deputy-head of the Regional Development and Tourism Division and the overall direction and strategic guidelines of Joaquim Oliveira-Martins, Deputy Director.
The review was drafted by Ana Moreno Monroy and Lenka Wildnerova (Chapter 2), Stefano Barbieri and Tamara Krawchenko (Chapter 3), and Isidora Zapata (Chapter 4) of the OECD Secretariat. The review also benefitted from valuable comments and input from other OECD colleagues: Rudiger Ahrend (Head of Economic Analysis, Statistics and Multi-Level Governance Section), Lucia Cusmano (Acting Head of SME and Entrepreneur Division), Dorothee Allain-Dupre, Anna Bolengo, Isabelle Chatry, Arno Engel, Klara Fritz, Eric Gonnard, Kim Soo-Jin Kim, Alexander Lembcke, Marco Marchese, Alina Matta, Varinia Michalun, Anna Piccinni, Paolo Rosso and Jane Stacey.
Thanks are due to the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (ΙΟΒΕ) and in particular to Nikos Vettas and his team: Giorgos Gatopoulos, Alexandros Moustakas, Grigoris Pavlou, Sophia Stavraki and Michalis Vasileiadis, who contributed to Chapter 2, as well as to Constantinos Kokkinoplitis (Director, Seven Sigma Innovation) and Michalis Nikitaridis (Managing Director, LKN Analysis), who provided input to Chapter 4. We are very grateful to Mauro Pisu and his colleagues from the OECD Economics Department, who provided very valuable input to the review and supervised IOBE’s contribution.
The OECD extends warm thanks to the members of DG REFORM who actively supported the review: Daniele Dotto (Head of Unit, Governance and public administration), Nikos Kleniatis, Phivi Haratsi, and to the other members of the Advisory Group, which included DG REGIO and DG EMPL of the European Commission. The OECD is also grateful to all stakeholders from the government and civil society, academia and business representatives who contributed to the publication during in-site mission. A special mention is also due to the Special Service for Strategy, Planning and Evaluation, the Managing Authorities of the regional and sectoral Operational Programmes within the ESPA 2014-2020, the Management Organisation Unit of Development Programmes (MOU-MOD), the Institute of Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), and the Hellenic Federation of enterprises (SEV).
The OECD is grateful for the involvement and contribution of peer reviewers Duarte Rodrigues (Vice‑President of the Board of the Cohesion and Development Agency of Portugal) and Tito Bianchi (Coordinator, Programming Evaluation and Analysis Unit, Department for Cohesion Policy, Presidency of the Council of Ministers of Italy).
The review was prepared for publication by Saliha Beaumont, Jeanette Duboys and Eleonore Morena. The production process was coordinated by Pilar Philip.