Shipping's unseen contribution to the wider community

"Shipowners support the sectors of culture, education and healthcare through personal charity work," said Varvitsiotis on the occasion of the presentation of a study, mid month made by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), at the commission of the Union of Greek Shipowners.

While the Massachusetts-based BCG repeats the call for the integration of shipping into Greece's long-term national development strategy so it can become a "key driver of the economic recovery" of the country the BCG survey, said: "Beyond shipping, Greece shipowners support the Greek economy and society in other ways. In particular they support the economy through their investments in other sectors and their philanthropic activities."

It listed some dozen prominent shipping names investing beyond shipping, encompassing energy transportation, construction financial services, tourism technology, retail, as well as supporting arts and culture, education, health and social welfare generally. These economic activities support the GDP and employment in Greece, and reveal the additional contribution of Greek shipping to the economy.

BCG says some indicative examples of investment beyond shipping are the foundation of Greek shipyards and refineries in Skaramanga by the Niarchos and Latsis families, creation of Corinth refinery, Motor Oil, by the Vardinoyiannis family, the foundation of Olympic Airlines by the Onassis family, the establishment of Elefsina shipyard and Emporiki Bank by the Andreadis family, Neorion Shipyard Syros by the Goulandis family, Khalkis Shipyard by the Carras family which has also investments in hotels, as have the Chandris, Constantakopoulos, Martinos and Potamianos families.

Greek shipowners have also been supporting arts and culture, education, health, social welfare through individual contributions, through the UGS or through foundations. Indicative examples of the latter are Eugenides, Goulandris, Laskaridis, Latsis, Lemos, Niarchos, Onassis, Pateras and Tsakos foundations.

There are hundreds of examples of Greek shipping money being used for philanthropic causes, many of them on the islands from which shipping people come. In fact, shipowner benefactors have played the biggest part in making life easier for islanders.

A few days prior to the presentation of the BCG report, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation committed $138m towards helping to create new opportunities for Greece's younger generations, which are severely impacted by the country's current and alarming unemployment rate. The foundation has committed the long-term grant as unemployment among young people in Greece is more than 60%, according to August data from the Hellenic Statistics Authority.

"The situation is dire," said Andreas C. Dracopoulos, co-president and board member of the SNF. "As labour economists have consistently pointed out, contrary to any other age group, being unemployed at a young age continues to impact people throughout most of their adult lives. We need to recharge the youth and create prospects now before a generation or several are lost.”

Two years back the foundation had dedicated a similar EUR100m ($138m) grant over a three-year period (2012-2015) to help ease the adverse effects of the deepening crisis in Greece. Since then, and as part of the initiative, the SNF has committed grants totaling EUR72.1m in support of numerous not-for-profit organisations around the country.

In the meantime, work is going ahead at pace on a $420m seafront cultural complex between Athens and Piraeus. In some 200 stremma of land, two 60,000sq metre buildings are under construction to house the country’s National Opera and National Library.

This complex is a few hundred metres from the $100m Onassion Cardic Hospital, donated to the state by the Onassis Foundation and opposite the world famous Eugenides Foundation and planetarium, created by the Eugenides family in 1956 which since has been an multifaceted contributor to Greek society, including running a scholarship programme granting 20 scholarships annually of a total $300,000.

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