Greek deal can boost cooperation with China

On Monday, after 17 hours of negotiations, Greece struck an historic deal with its European Union partners to begin negotiations for a third, 86 billion euro ($94.83 billion), 3-year memorandum that not only will allow Greece to remain solvent, but also help restore longer-term Greek competitiveness.

There is no denying that the new agreement contains harsh austerity measures. The latter (such as increased VAT and measures to improve the long-term sustainability of the pension system) were made necessary by the easing of policies observed during the last 12 months.

However, at the same time, the agreement puts significant emphasis on wide-ranging pro-growth structural reforms for product markets, labor markets and governance. All of these are needed for long-term growth.