Dendias: Greece needs 10,000 new entrepreneurs

The troika of Greece's lenders has requested that the legislation on defaulted business loans be overseen by some agency, he added.

Asked whether a solution to the issue would include means to determine the types of business defaults, Dendias said this would be determined by a comparison between a business' financial statements and those of its owner. "The law gives general terms, does not clarify who is who," he added.

"The troika has proposed, as a thought, that some agency oversees the application of this legislation, if there is agreement. First we must agree on how to regulate that and then see if it needs a regular, daily oversight in its implementation or whwether a periodical check can be carried out. We shall see," he said. There is no margin to benefit those who have assets that do not justify their business' financial problems, he stressed.

Asked about home auctions, he replied, "If we heal the causes, there will be no need for regulations. If we regulate the housing and business loans, only the crooks will still have a problem."

Dendias said the government's concern was to encourage young people to become entrepreneurs and not to be discouraged by failure. "Whoever fails once, we will not hang him at Syntagma Square, if, of course, he is not a crook. Developed countries forgive failure and we must do so too. We need at least 10,000 new business owners. Unemployment cannot be absorbed by the state," he pointed out.