The Australian Ambassador to Greece, Jenny Bloomfield, visited Thessaloniki to promote business ties and strengthen the sister city bond with Melbourne.
In Thessaloniki, Mrs Bloomfield spoke at a dinner for business women, organised by the Hellenic-Australian Business Council on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
Addressing members of the Thessaloniki Municipal Council, Mrs Bloomfield also spoke on Australia-Greece relations to promote further business, educational, cultural, environmental and youth ties and related it back to the 30th anniversary of the Melbourne-Thessaloniki sister city relationship and Thessaloniki’s European Youth Capital year in 2014.
The Ambassador also had time to visit students of the Aristoteleio University of Thessaloniki, Greece’s largest university. The university is host to Australian teachers of Modern Greek and provides intensive language and cultural studies under the Australian Government’s Endeavour Language Teacher Fellowship Awards. Mrs Bloomfield also visited Thessaloniki’s Byzantium Museum where she viewed exhibits and discussed opportunities for arts and cultural exchanges.
Mrs Bloomfield said that Australia and Greece shared longstanding historical, cultural and people-to-people links. Australia understood the difficult situation facing Greece and was supporting Greek efforts by sharing Australia’s reform experience and promoting bilateral commercial ties, to the benefit of both countries.