A trip to Saudi Arabia, including a large business delegation, was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – under the supervision of Deputy Minister for Economic Diplomacy and Openness Kostas Fragogiannis and the Secretary General for International Economic Affairs and President of Enterprise Greece Ioannis Smyrlis and was completed with great success. More than fifty-five (55) executives from 43 different businesses were among the participants.
Joining the delegation were also Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis, Deputy Minister for Development Ioannis Tsakiris and Secretary General of Private Investments Orestis Kavalakis, as well as Deputy Minister of Tourism Sofia Zacharaki and Secretary General for Tourism Olympia Anastassopoulou.
During the third and final day of the visit, on Monday, March 14, Deputy Minister Fragogiannis and members of the official delegation had a series of working meetings with the leadership of the Pension Fund of Saudi Arabia – an important investment institution in the country – with the Governor of the General Authority for Foreign Trade Abdulrahman Alharbi, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al Jaber, Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed A. Elkhereiji and the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha.
In addition, Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis held a meeting with Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, while Deputy Minister of Tourism Zacharaki met with her counterpart, Minister of Tourism Ahmed Aqeel AlKhateeb.
The official delegation’s contacts were completed with an impromptu meeting with the Minister of Investment of Saudi Arabia and host of the delegation Amid Khalid Al-Falih, who wanted to be briefed on the results of the meetings, while reiterating the importance Saudi Arabia attaches to its strategic relationship with Greece.
Both Minister of Development and Investments Adonis Georgiadis and Deputy of Foreign Affairs Kostas Fragogiannis expressed their special satisfaction for the hospitality they received in Saudi Arabia and for the content of the contacts with officials, as well as with the business world of the country.
The participating entrepreneurs expressed similar satisfaction, saying they were impressed by the reception offered to the Greek delegation by the Saudi hosts, and expressed their optimism for the prospects of bilateral business cooperation, both current and future ones, while congratulating the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the jointly responsible bodies for the exceptional level of the visit’s organization. Particular reference was made by all to the systematic and consistent work of the Greek diplomatic mission in Riyadh headed by Ambassador Alexis Konstantopoulos.
In his statements following his return to Athens, Deputy Minister Mr. Fragogiannis praised the level of bilateral relations with Saudi Arabia, with which we have strong ties, both historical and cultural. “The business mission had exactly this goal, to build on the strong ties between Greece and Saudi Arabia. “We will follow up each of our contacts in Saudi Arabia with great consistency and in this context, there will be a visit of Saudi investors and businessmen to Greece, next May”, said Mr. Fragogiannis, while on his part, the Secretary General Mr. Smyrlis noted: “We are very pleased to be able to make a follow up and start having practical results, which will further increase the significant trade balance between the two countries and will confirm the very good political relations”.