Business delegation to visit Saudi Arabia, headed by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Openness Kostas Fragogiannis (12-14.03.2022)

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Openness Kostas Fragogiannis will make a two-day visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on March 12-14, 2022, together with a large business delegation, five months after the Prime Minister’s visit to Riyadh.

Joining the delegation are Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis, Deputy Minister for Development Ioannis Tsakiris, Deputy Minister of Tourism Sofia Zacharaki, Secretary General of Private Investments Orestis Kavalakis and Secretary General for Tourism Olympia Anastassopoulou. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs will also be accompanied by Secretary General for International Economic Relations Ioannis Smyrlis, the CEO of Enterprise Greece Giorgos Filiopoulos and the General Manager of ECIO Grigoris Stamatopoulos.

An all-day Greek-Saudi Investment Forum aiming at strengthening and deepening economic and business relations between the two countries is scheduled for the second day, March 13; B2B business meetings will be held organized by Invest Saudi and Enterprise Greece under the auspices of the Secretariat General for International Economic Relations.

The business delegation includes senior executives of 43 companies from the sectors of construction, shipping, tourism, the pharmaceutical industry, energy, cyber security, the banking sector, as well as institutional representatives, such as the President of the Executive Committee of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises Mr. Efthymios Vidalis, the President of the Hellenic Development Bank of Investments Mr. Haris Lambropoulos and members of the Boards of Directors of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Greek Exporters Association. The newly-founded Greece-Saudi Arabia Business Council, established to facilitate economic cooperation between the two countries, is represented by the President of TEMES SA Achilles Konstantakopoulos.

On March 12th, the delegation will visit the historic city of Al Ula in the northwestern district of Medina. Saudi Arabia is keen on developing the historic city into a tourist and cultural pole, an ambitious project for sustainable development, and has included an extensive visit to this effect.  The project is scheduled to be implemented in three phases between 2023, 2030 and 2035, with a total budget of 15 billion dollars.

In addition, a series of working meetings of the Greek Ministers with the Saudi Ministers of Investment, Trade, Foreign Affairs, Energy, Culture, Tourism, as well as with the head of the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, are also scheduled to take place.