Greece is casting a wide net for investors in China, the Arab world and even old rival Turkey in a desperate bid to revive its flagging economy and soften the impact of hugely unpopular debt cuts.
As the Greek prime minister wooed potential investors in Beirut last week, officials in Athens pitched trade projects to commercial giant China Ocean Shipping Group Co, (Cosco, 中遠集團) just days after scores of Turkish businessmen were treated to talks.
The Socialist government has been at pains to assure investors that they will be safe from paralyzing strikes and the stifling red tape that have been a dominant feature of the Greek business landscape for decades.
“Bureaucracy and corruption have been the basic obstacles to investment in our country,” Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou told parliament on Friday.
“We are making a laborious effort to attract productive, not parasitic, investment,” he said.
Papandreou last week hosted his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was accompanied by around 100 businessmen.
Old rivals Athens and Ankara agreed to step up contacts, hoping to bury differences and eventually eliminate a costly arms race.
With a debt of nearly 300 billion euros (US$372 billion) and a rescue package from the EU and the IMF earned only after deep austerity cuts, Greece urgently needs to boost output and create jobs.
Four general strikes have been held since February against draconian spending cuts and tax hikes, with the latest on Thursday.
Speaking in Beirut as thousands of protesters marched in Athens, Papandreou appealed to Arab nations to invest, touting Greece as “investment friendly” and promising to “personally” oversee efforts to woo foreign companies.
“Greece is changing rapidly and ... we invite you all to join us,” Papandreou said at the opening of a two-day Arab Economic Forum.
“Greece today is an opportunity for new business, but also an opportunity to further strengthen our historical and cultural ties,” Papandreou said.
“We are limiting bureaucracy, making our economy investment friendly. We are passing new legislation so that new companies can ... [obtain a] licence right away, while in the past it took many months,” he said.
Then on Friday Libyan Prime Minister Baghdadi Mahmoud said during a visit to Athens that his country stood ready to help Greece emerge from the crisis.
“We have the political will to support Greece and help it get out of the difficult period that it is going through,” he said.
Mahmoud said his country “is ready to cooperate with Greece on green energy, power generation and tourism as well as increase Libyan investments in Greece.”
Another prominent potential investor, Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr Al-Thani, recently lectured Greece on the need for speed.
“Qatar wishes to invest US$5 billion in Greece but this offer requires monitoring and determination on both sides to take decisions and implement them,” the sheikh said earlier this month after talks with Papandreou.
Qatari funds are currently being poured into a liquefied natural gas and power plant in the port of Astakos in western Greece.
Earlier in the year, the Abu Dhabi Mar group took over struggling Hellenic Shipyards near Athens after the previous German owners ThyssenKrupp pulled out.
Greece’s abundant port facilities, the quality of its merchant fleet and its strategic location as a gateway into the Balkans and Europe has also drawn interest from Cosco.
The Chinese giant last year signed with Greece a 35-year concession to expand the two main container terminals at the main Greek port of Piraeus for a guaranteed premium of 3.4 billion euros.
With Cosco’s top brass in town last week to review progress on the deal, Greek officials tried to pitch more projects including a new logistics hub in Thriasio, west of Athens, and the sale of Greece’s ailing state rail firm OSE.
“Cosco has a major plan to build the port of Piraeus into the greatest container hub in the Eastern Mediterranean area, and we will create a logistics center in Piraeus,” Cosco chief executive Wei Jiafu (魏家福) told reporters.
Asked about the impact of strikes, Wei said he had a pledge from Greek President Carolos Papoulias that the project would face no obstacles.
“These are positive initiatives ... but I would be more optimistic if there was greater mobility in implementing these changes,” said Angelos Tsakanikas, head of studies at the Institute for Economic and Industrial Research. “We need to move on from words, or the same problems will again block those investors who decide to come.”
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