"Hopes for Recovery: Greek PM Wraps Up China Visit, with an Optimistic Tone"

Athens.- Wrapping up his official visit to China on late on Saturday (China time) in Shanghai, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras reviewed Chinese-Greek relations and once again outlined the sectors that were particularly lucrative to bilateral cooperation agreements.

Before leaving China, Samaras has hailed kinder words from lenders and revived interest in the country’s deeply-discounted bonds and stocks as a “Greekovery” to replace last year’s “Grexit” catchphrase.

Although there is little sign of economic recovery, Greece is finally attracting some of the cheap funds that are being pumped out by major central banks and feeding an investment boom on stock and bond markets. Greek bond yields are at a three-year-low and its stock market has hit a two-year high, helped by praise from foreign lenders for government efforts in getting its bailout programme back on track.

“Until recently, many analysts believed that Greece was a lost case. We proved them wrong,” Samaras said in a speech in Beijing during a trip to China on Friday.

“Most of them now witness not a “Grexit” – an exit from the euro zone – but a “Greekovery” – a recovery of the Greek economy.”

The economy, however, remains mired in sixth year of recession with unemployment at a record 27 percent and living standards have sunk due to wage and pension cuts.

“Samaras’s ‘success story’ insults the country’s youth, of whom 70 percent are unemployed,” George Varemenos, a lawmaker from the main opposition Syriza party, told Skai TV.

Investor interest in Greece revived this week after the Fitch agency upgraded the country’s sovereign credit rating to B-minus – still highly speculative – from CCC on Tuesday.

“Steadily Greece convinces more and more that it is on the course of becoming a true success story,” said Samaras.

In his speech at the Greek-Chinese Business Forum, Samaras said his government had prepared the ground for these investments properly by securing political and social stability, avoiding the risk of exiting from the eurozone, recapitalising the banking system and implementing structural changes. Greece had initiated fast-track processes to help new business ventures, several sectors like those of the energy market, transportation and coastal shipping were being liberalised, and the country had a large-scale privatisation programme in process.

In projects already under way, Samaras mentioned Chinese container-giant COSCO’s role in the main port of Piraeus, the Greek shipowners’ use of Chinese shipyards for additions to their fleet (currently at 142 orders), and the trade between the two countries in agricultural products.

“I want to emphasise that the Greek government is willing to schedule more activities and take more initiatives to bring together our entrepreneurs,” the prime minister noted, mentioning business meetings and trade forums as examples.

He also encouraged representatives of the public and private sectors in both countries to “follow up on this visit with initiatives that build on the momentum.”

The Greek premier thanked the government of China for its hospitality and called his first official visit to the country “the beginning of a new, more prosperous chapter in the history of our people. Confucius wrote about the ‘path to Wisdom’ and Plato wrote about the ‘path to Virtue’,” he said. “Let us join our forces to establish our own common path to a very prosperous future,” he added.

Samaras, head of a large delegation of ministers and business people, is heading to Baku, Azerbaijan, for an official one-day visit there before returning to Greece.

OFFICIAL MEETINGS

Greece and China pledged to continue their high-level cooperation and contact, with a “strategic planning on the development of the bilateral relations in the new era,” in a joint announcement issued on Friday after Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras concluded a round of official meetings in Beijing.

Following his talks with Chinese premier Li Keqiang on Thursday, Samaras was received by Chinese President Xi Jinping and National People’s Congress Chairman Zhang Dejiang on Friday.

The announcement also noted that “China attributes high importance to Greece’s role as a factor of stability in the southeastern European region as well as in the eastern Mediterrenean area.” Both sides confirmed their intention to work for a just, viable and functional solution to the Cyprus issue, based on the decisions of the UN Security Council, adding that they support the UN secretary general’s efforts.

China acknowledged the efforts of the Greek government and Greek people to deal with the debt crisis and said it will continue to express its understanding and support to Greece.

Both sides agreed on the necessity of further intensifying bilateral cooperation in economy and trade and to encourage mutual investment activity, as well as to boost cooperation in the maritime, telecoms and infrastructure sectors, the statement said.

It concluded by saying that Greece “welcomes and salutes” the participation of Chinese enterprises in the Greek government’s privatisation programme, declaring the government’s intention to offer the necessary assistance and support.

The bonds between Greece and China as two ancient and important civilisations were also stressed in statements made after Samaras’ meeting with the Chinese president.

“Greece is the cradle of western civilization just as China is the cradle of eastern civilization. Both countries have contributed greatly to the progress of humanity,” President Xi Jinping said, adding that he has been to Greece and has read about it.

Samaras said he felt honored to meet the Chinese president, adding that he had just visited the Great Wall: “This is a great monument of world civilization, which shows that China has always had a defensive and not an offensive stance. The culture, values and the languages of the two peoples constitute the cornerstones of world civilization. There is a bond linking the Greeks and Chinese.”

In his talks with National People’s Congress Chairman Zhang Dejiang, the prime minister said that it was a great honor to be in China meet its political leadership, while also presenting him with an invitation from Greek Parliament President Evangelos Meimarakis to visit Greece.

The Greek prime minister also had the opportunity to address a Greek-Chinese business forum in China’s capital late on Thursday night, after Greece and China signed a series of agreements on cooperation in investments, shipping and the export of Greek marble and olive oil.

Reviewing trade relations between the two countries, the premier said that exports to China had increased by 41.5 pct between 2011 and 2012, while China has become the 10th biggest importer of Greek goods.

Greece’s goal is to double its exports to China by 2015, and to strengthen collaboration in tourism, shipping, banking, food and beverages, building materials and high technology/information and communications technology, he said.

“Greece can serve as the access point to other markets as well,” he noted, pointing out that Greece’s advantage as a trading partner included its strategic location (with access to three continents), its membership of the European Union and the eurozone, its modern infrastructure and networks, and its highly trained, experienced and multilingual personnel.

Admitting to past failures, Samaras said Greece had to overcome excessive debt and relatively low competitiveness, and outlined the government’s success in stabilising the economy and carrying out structural reforms, proving wrong the analysts that considered Greece a lost cause and “killing” currency risk scenarios. He also said the country was dealing with practical issues for investors, and is “moving from many bureaucratic red-tape troubles to the red-carpet treatment of every potential investor.”

“It’s true that we have had significant delays in the past. But we are now catching up on lost time,” he said, and pushing through with 28 privatisation projects, after recently completing the first large-scale privatisation of the Greek National Lottery (OPAP), to be followed by the natural gas corporation.

“As we all know by now, in Chinese the word ‘crisis’ is identical with the word for ‘opportunity’,” Samaras said, adding, “I encourage you to look closely to investment opportunities in the Greek market, where you can easily find suitable local partners and thus generate profitable business partnerships.”

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