New Era Opportunity, Greek- Chinese Partnerships

                                                                                                                                  By ECCRD  Nov. 06, 2019

Greece helps “The Second China International Import Expo” to be more wonderful with “Culture to Share” concept

                                                                                ---- Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis led Greek delegation to attend the CIIE

On November 4th, Chinese President Jinping Xi met with Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis in Shanghai. Jinping Xi greeted Mitsotakis to China to attend the Second China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as “The 2nd CIIE”).

Xi said that China’s holding of the CIIE is a great action for China to firmly support trade liberalization and economic globalization and actively open its market to the world. We are pleased to see Greece as the guest country, and actively promote the Greek high-quality products to Chinese consumer through the CIIE platform.

Mitsotakis stated that he was very happy to lead the delegation to the 2nd CIIE. The Greek people are eagerly looking forward to Xi’s early visiting to Greece. Greece will continue to open the market to China and welcome all Chinese enterprises to make investments. The leaders of both sides have jointly emphasized that Greece and China are both ancient civilizations, and the friendship between the two countries goes way back to ancient times. The two sides agreed that mutually beneficial cooperation benefits the two peoples. In addition to holding a business forum, Greece will hold 120 business talks between Chinese and Greek companies during the CIIE. 

As one of the guests of CIIE, Greece will focus on the Greek culture, hospitality, and Greek cuisine with the theme of “Culture to Share”.

Just as the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said while he was interviewed by China’s Xinhua News Agency, the firm and long-lasting friendship and partnership between Greece and China are based on mutual respecting for each other’s cultural heritage and economic and trade relations.

Both Greece and China are ancient civilizations with a long history. They are outstanding representatives of Eastern and Western civilizations. The two peoples born to have the friendliness and both are warm and hospitable. Undoubtedly, the “Spirit of sharing” has important practical significance for the conversation between the East and the West and the maintenance of the international economic cooperation system.

The Greek “spirit of sharing” and “The Belt and Road Initiative (B&R)” proposed by China are different in approach but equally satisfactory in the result.

On May 13, 2017, during the first Belt and Road Forum  for International Cooperation(BRF), with the promotion of ECCRD, the Greek Ministry of Economic Development and the local government of China also signed a memorandum of cooperation regarding “The China-Greece Cultural Park” project. This is the first project in the world to systematically build the development process of the East and West civilizations. The purpose is to show the history of the harmonious symbiosis between the East and the West to the world. It is a new platform with strategic support to promote the two-way tourism between Greece, China, and Europe, and expand the EU-China international economic cooperation.

On May 12-16 this year, Greek President ProkopisPavlopoulos was invited to pay a state visit to China and attended the “Conference on Dialogue of Asian Civilizations.” The leaders of Greece and China had a high consensus on promoting dialogue on civilization and safeguarding world peace. Xi said “Greece is an ancient civilization in Europe. Your arrival is of great significance to promoting the exchange of mutual understanding between Asia and Europe and the dialogue among different civilizations in the world.” President Pavlopoulos said that “the initiative to promote a dialogue of civilizations is important to both Greece and Europe, and we are willing to support this initiative.”

Greece is recognized as a world tourist destination and the birthplace of the Western Renaissance and Enlightenment. Located at the intersection of The Silk Road on Land & Sea, it is a bridgehead connecting Europe and Asia. Greece is the largest shipping country in the world, with a global population of 0.15% controlling one-quarter of the world’s merchant ships, with a total tonnage accounting for 21% of the world, 53% of the EU, carrying 60% of China’s import and export bulk goods. Greece is also the first EU developed country that signs the Memorandum of Understanding on the B&R cooperation. The cooperation project between China and Greece regarding Piraeus is known as the model of international cooperation in the B&R. It has witnessed the win-win cooperation and the respect and friendship between the two peoples. In 2018, the container throughput of Piraeus has increased from 880,000 TEUs in 2010 to 4.91 million TEUs. The world ranking rose from 93rd to 32nd, it directly created 2,600 jobs and indirectly created more than 8,000 jobs. Bruegel, the famous European think tank, described the development of the port Piraeus as “unprecedented.” Greece was the first country to establish a national display platform after the first Expo.

Share The Vision: New Era Opportunity to Greek- Chinese Partnerships

The P. M Mitsotakis attending the “Share the Vision” business forum on the 4th. Photo credit: ECCRD

Nearly 200 guests attended the 4th Business Forum. Photo credit: ECCRD

The newly elected Greek government pays high attention to participating in this CIIE. The CIIE was organized by Enterprise Greece Under the joint guidance of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Greek Ministry of Development and Investment. According to Enterprise Greece, more than 60 Greek companies attending the CIIE including the domain of shipping industry, energy, tourism, construction, pharmaceuticals, and agricultural products.

15 national leaders of the host country, 145 deputy ministerial level and above and more than 20 leaders of international organizations and registered buyers with more than 500,000 funds will attend the fair this year. Although the venue is expanded from 300,000 square meters to 360,000 square meters since the first CIIE, the booths are still in short supply.

Written by: Asterios Steges,   Chief Director of China Affairs, ECCRD

                    Bofeng,  Associate Research Assistants of ECCRD