The Japanese business community’s and Japanese investment funds’ increased interest in doing business in Greece was confirmed during a three-day visit to Tokyo by a government and business delegation on 29-31 January, led by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and with the participation of the Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy and Openness, Kostas Fragogiannis and the Secretary-General for International Economic Affairs and Openness, Vicky Loizou.
Mr. Fragogiannis expressed his satisfaction with the atmosphere he encountered during his meetings with Japanese entrepreneurs. “I am optimistic that we will very soon announce partnerships and investments in green energy, tourism, and high technology, especially space and biotechnology”, he stated emphatically.
Ms. Loizou, for her part, stated that the Memorandum of Understanding she signed, on behalf of Enterprise Greece, with its Japanese counterpart JETRO, during the Greek-Japanese Business Forum held on Tuesday, January 31, “confirms the willingness of both parties to work closely together and is only the first step towards a common path of strategic initiatives and the development of joint actions”.
The representatives of the 19 leading Greek enterprises participating in the business delegation also expressed their satisfaction with the level of contacts and the prospects of rapprochement with the Japanese business world and the Japanese market, as more than 90 targeted B2B meetings were held with their Japanese counterparts from the energy, high-tech, and shipping sectors.
During the visit, Deputy Minister K. Fragogiannis and Secretary-General V. Loizou accompanied Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his meetings with Japanese government officials and representatives of investment funds, banks, and enterprises. In addition, they had a bilateral meeting with the Japanese State Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kenji Yamada, during which they discussed prospects for strengthening bilateral trade and economic relations more broadly, with emphasis on energy, tourism, pharmaceuticals, high technology, and innovation. They also addressed ways to promote economic cooperation at regional level in the Western Balkans and the South-Eastern Mediterranean.
Deputy Minister K. Fragogiannis, accompanied by the Secretary-General for Energy and Mineral Resources Alexandra Sdoukou met with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ Head of Strategy Development for Energy Systems, Hitoshi Kaguchi, who presented the company’s latest technological projects while expressing the Japanese giant’s interest in Greece’s energy policy. The discussion focused on the possibilities of cooperation in order to better harness new technologies for the production and storage of hydrogen as a form of green energy.
In the context of the business mission to Tokyo, in addition to the Memorandum of Cooperation between Enterprise Greece and JETRO, a Memorandum of Cooperation was also signed between the Hellenic Export Credit Organization S.A., ECG, and the corresponding Japanese entity NEXI. The Memorandum was signed by the CEO of ECG, Mr. G. Stamatopoulos, in the presence of the Secretary-General, Ms. Loizou, who also addressed the meeting. The aim of the Memorandum is to institutionalize cooperation and explore mutual opportunities for insurance, reinsurance, and co-insurance services for exports of goods and services between the two countries.
The delegation to Tokyo was also joined by the Minister of Digital Governance Kyriakos Pierrakakis, accompanied by institutional market players, the President of the Administrative Committee of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sofia Kounenaki-Efraimoglou and the President of the Board of Directors of SEV Hellenic Federation of Enterprises, Dimitris Papalexopoulos.