Economy and Development Minister Dimitri Papadimitriou on Thursday cited what he called the great potential for economic growth and investment opportunities offered by Greece’s healthcare and affiliated sectors, speaking during the inaugural “Naftemporiki” conference on healthcare.
The conference, which opened at a central Athens hotel on Thursday morning, is entitled “The Role of Healthcare in Economic Growth”.
Papadimitriou, a noted US-based academic and economist, revealed that total turnover of private healthcare providers in Greece exceeds 800 million euros on an annual basis, with the corresponding figure for pharmaceuticals at 1.5 billion euros.
He also pointed to the high-skilled human resources component of Greece’s drug manufacturing and R&D field, saying the ex-factory value of the entire sector reached 929 million euros (based on Eurostat figures) in 2015, of which 29 percent of the production volume was comprised of generic medicines.
According to figures cited by the minister to participants at the conference, Greece’s pharmaceuticals sector ranks in eighth place out of 24 manufacturing sectors in the country for 2014.
At the same time, he pointed to the heightened potential for exports of Greek healthcare services through so-called “medical tourism” developed in the east Mediterranean country.
In the meanwhile, Greek Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura announced on Thursday, that a legal framework to cover health tourism was the next step in a series of actions by the ministry to prepare the ground for the expansion of the thematic travel sector.
She said the decision came after a number of meetings with health tourism associations, stakeholders and service providers which explored problem areas and challenges, made proposals and set priorities.
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