Competitiveness can be recovered only through a wide- ranging, consistent reform strategy involving the public sector, firms and the financial system. The commitment to creating a more business-friendly institutional and legal environment has to be strengthened, with further simplification of rules and regulations, improvement in the quality of essential public services, and continuing action to combat illegal behaviour.
Especially in today’s circumstances – marked by profound transformation – an easing of the fiscal burden on productive factors, together with selective spending cuts to reduce waste and measures to make government more efficient, can be decisive to the ability of the system to undertake the necessary changes.