Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Openness Kostas Fragogiannis’ visit to the USA (11-15.12.2021)

Deputy Minister for Economic Diplomacy and Openness Kostas Fragogiannis’ visit to the USA was completed with great success, despite the fact that health restrictions and international protocols did not allow the delegation to travel to San Francisco for the second part of the visit due to contact with a confirmed COVID-19 case in Boston.

In the course of his stay in Boston, Mr. Fragogiannis – accompanied by Deputy Minister for Development and Investments in charge of Research and Technology Mr. Christos Dimas – had the opportunity to promote to his contacts the new face of Greece, which is friendly to innovation, extroversion and entrepreneurship and convince them of Greece’s credibility and attractiveness as an investment destination.

Mr. Fragogiannis met and exchanged views with scientists and academics from Harvard and MIT, with high-ranking US business executives, as well as with Greek Diaspora entrepreneurs on the possibilities of applying new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and prospects to attract new US investments in Greece. The prospect of a more specialized institutional presence of Greece in the US innovation centers to support Greek scientists and entrepreneurs operating there was also discussed.

To this end, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Fragogiannis promised to return to the United States within the first half of 2022, in order to hold the meetings with the scientific and business community that were cancelled in San Francisco.

Returning to Greece, Mr. Fragogiannis pointedly said: “We are returning rather hastily but bringing back with us a wealth of positive results from our contacts in Boston, regarding technological developments and the prospects of their implementation in Greece but also the interest of US companies to start operations in our country. I think that the goal of building bridges of cooperation has been achieved. We will continue to work systematically, with the valuable help of our diplomatic authorities, for the implementation of the proposals discussed and we will return to the USA even more prepared for a dynamic presence of Greece in the global innovation centers “.