Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Openness, Kostas Fragogiannis, spoke about Greece’s strategic plan to serve as a major digital hub in Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean and the role of regional cooperation in this regard, during his address at the Global Innovation Summit, held in Athens between November 14 and 16, 2022.
Speaking on a panel during the conference session on “Building Competitiveness – from the Region to the Globe,” Mr. Fragogiannis emphasized the rapid growth of the Greek innovation and start-up ecosystem in recent years, as a result of the coordinated actions of the Greek government and economic diplomacy in particular. Furthermore, he underlined that Greece will soon be one of the few countries, outside North America, to host all three of the world’s leading cloud computing companies, which will benefit both the country and the region.
The Deputy Minister praised the agreement with Saudi Arabia for the development of the high-speed undersea data transmission cable – the East to Med Data Corridor – which will consolidate Greece’s position as a data transmission gate to Europe.
Mr. Fragogiannis emphasized the importance of regional cooperation, pointing out that the current National Strategic Plan for Extroversion (2022) includes 58 bilateral initiatives with Western Balkans neighboring countries and 119 actions with partner countries in the Middle East and North Africa. He also underscored that many of these initiatives are related to technology and innovation.
The Deputy Minister also referred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ participation – through the National Investment and Trade Promotion Agency, Enterprise Greece – in the European Commission’s Gazelle program for the support of innovative SMEs in the wider Balkan and Mediterranean region.
Mr. Fragogiannis concluded his speech by expressing his faith and confidence in the country’s human capital, particularly the younger generations, and by expressing the government’s intention to strengthen regional cooperation between academic institutions and research centers for the development of joint innovative projects.
The Global Innovation Summit was organized by the Delphi Economic Forum and the Council of Competitiveness of Greece (CompeteGr) and was attended by entrepreneurs and representatives of research and innovation bodies from 34 countries, as well as by many government officials.