On Thursday Greek and Chinese state officials together with representatives of various major enterprises signed a series of memoranda to promote bilateral economic cooperation under the Greece-China Action Plan 2017-19.

The two countries made progress on the details of various projects as part of the three-year-action plan. This included the signing of an agreement between China’s largest coal producer, Shenhua and one of Greece’s biggest investment groups, Copelouzos Group for a 75 percent share of the four wind parks developed by the Greek company.

Meanwhile a three-party agreement was also signed by the two and Greece’s Power Public Cooperation, making Shenhua a partner in PPC Solar Solutions.

An MOU was also signed by Greek power transmission operation ADMIE with China Development Bank, and Chairman and CEO Manos Manoussakis could only speak highly of the cooperation which he said had already had benefits for ADMIE.

“Today we signed a very important memorandum of understanding with China Development Bank in order to explore the possibilities for financing our new projects and our company’s working capital,” said Mr Manoussakis.

“Ahead of us, there are great interconnection projects between the mainland of Greece and the Greek islands, and also international interconnection projects in the Mediterranean sea.”

The Greece-China Action Plan was first confirmed during Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ visit to Beijing earlier this year, and was followed up by a visit to Athens by a Chinese delegation led by Vice Head of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Ning Jizhe.

“The basis of this cooperation we believe is that Greece’s growth strategy meets China’s Belt and Road Initiative and the benefits are mutual,” said Greece’s Deputy Economy and Development Minister, Stergios Pitsiorlas.

“Today we have the first tangible results. The signing of a series of agreements and MOUs are the first steps in the implementation of this action plan; therefore we are on the right path.”
Mr Jizhe said he was pleased with the collaboration and that results had already been achieved with the hope to continue building on their cooperation.