Greece and Kuwait discuss economic cooperation

   No time should be lost in developing business and investment activity between Greece and Kuwait, Deputy Foreign Minister Evripidis Styliandis stressed on Friday after a meeting with the head of a Kuwaiti parliamentary delegation visiting Greece, Marzouk al Habini.

    The minister pointed out that this was a crucial time when Kuwait was seeking suitable investments for its surplus capital.

    According to Stylianidis, the years 2006 and 2007 would see an "opening of Greek economic diplomacy in the East Mediterranean, the countries of the Gulf and the Arab world in general," while he stressed that Greece traditionally has extremely good political and cultural ties with these areas that were not reflected by the level of economic and trade transactions.

    Greece's priorities are to boost Greek exports to Arab countries, increase Greek business presence in those countries and attract Arab capital to Greece, as a gateway to the Balkans and to western Europe, the minister said.

    The minister also noted that a host of bilateral cooperation agreements had been signed since 1979, while the agreements that were still outstanding - for mutual protection of investments, maritime transport, tourism cooperation and judicial support - were now in the final stages.

    Al Habini said that special effort needed to be made to boost investments and the volume of trade transactions, agreeing that economic relations lagged well behind the excellent political ties even though the legal framework was almost complete.

    He stressed that Kuwait's investments abroad came to 100 billion dollars but almost nothing of this had been in Greece.

    "Because of the rise in oil prices, we have a huge surplus of capital that is looking for markets for safe and profitable investment," Al-Habini said, while stressing that moves on the Greek side should be made quickly or else the capital would be invested elsewhere.

    Stylianidis asked the Kuwaiti delegation to inform their country's business community of the Greek state companies now undergoing privatisation, such as Olympic Airlines and the deregulated energy market. He also noted the incentives to foreign investors provided by the country's developmental laws to develop new sectors, such as trade and transit centres on roads, tourism and manufacturing.

    The minister also announced that a business forum for Arab countries will be held in Athens in September with the participation of mixed Chambers of commerce under the auspices of the foreign ministry, while he revealed that the Greek government hoped to carry out a series of visits to Mediteranean and Gulf countries within the year, to be carried out by either the president, foreign minister or deputy foreign ministers.

    The Kuwaiti delegation included five MPs that were members of the Greece-Kuwait Friendship Groups and Kuwait's Ambassador in Athens.