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Red tape can hobble economies

Dear Editor: The economic and social turmoil in Greece breaks my heart because there is no reason for it. If Greece's crippling red tape was eliminated, Greece could rival Germany as Europe's economic powerhouse.

Dear Editor:

The economic and social turmoil in Greece breaks my heart because there is no reason for it. If Greece's crippling red tape was eliminated, Greece could rival Germany as Europe's economic powerhouse. Why? Because Greece, like British Columbia, is full of natural resources and natural wealth. The red tape holding Greece back has no value other than keeping bureaucrats busy.

Greece has some of the largest gold deposits in Europe. Greece is also the European Union's biggest producer of bauxite, chromite, magnesium, nickel, and zinc, and only second to the U.S. in bentonite production. Greece's mineral wealth, including uranium, titanium and silver, is conservatively valued at 100 billion euros and probably way more. And just south of Crete, billions of barrels of oil and natural gas deposits have been found, as well as deposits under the Aegean Sea.

Yes, Greece is very much like B.C. in terms of its natural resource wealth. Greece even has renewable energy resources that could replace petrol for heating homes in Greece's cold north if only the red tape could be eliminated and private companies freed to go about their business and supply these needs through innovation and healthy competition. Red tape is needlessly hobbling Greek prosperity and the way out of the country's economic turmoil; let's not let it hobble us here in British Columbia.

Eugenia Nikolaidis, Burnaby