Article by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kostas Fragogiannis in “To Vima tis Kyriakis” newspaper (05.02.2023)

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The example of Japan

We recently returned from a three-day business mission to Tokyo, Japan, having held a series of high-level meetings and contacts with government officials, economic players, financial institutions, and Japanese industry giants.

It was a challenging mission that apparently could not have been undertaken four years ago. The fact that the Japanese welcomed us as reliable interlocutors and reliable economic partners was the result of hard work and meticulous efforts.

And indeed, it is another success of the current government that we have managed to “do it the Japanese way”! What do I mean by that? I mean that, by investing in a culture of seriousness, responsibility, and cooperation aimed at promoting national economic interests and leveraging the country’s comparative advantages as tools, we are now one step closer to concluding important agreements with Japanese financial institutions as well as with Japanese industry and advanced technology giants.

Of course, it is true that our relations with Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, have always been very friendly at the political level, as we share common values of respect for International Law and international legality. Our traditional ties as well as our cooperation in the maritime sector are also well known.

However, there has always been great scope for the development of our economic and trade relations and exchanges. And this has been our strategic objective since the beginning of this government’s tenure. Already in July 2019, a few days after the government took office, we welcomed a high-level Japanese delegation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who came to Athens to learn about the Greek start-up entrepreneurship ecosystem. This was followed, in early 2020, by our own visit to Japan, as an economic diplomacy team, with the aim of stimulating Japanese interest in the prospects of the Greek economy.

The global crises that followed hampered our work to a certain extent. But efforts have continued and we have already had investments from private companies, such as Hitachi, which has invested in the Thessaloniki metro, or Japan Tobacco Company, which has invested in Xanthi.

The projected upgrade of the country’s investment status within 2023 will be the crowning achievement of the efforts, as it will free up investments in Greece by major trading houses of Japan, as well as by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (Jbic).

We will soon see Japanese activity in the country in the fields of green energy/hydrogen, tourism development, infrastructure projects, and high-tech, space, or biotechnology investments. And all this is the result of an orchestrated national effort and another successful business mission.