THESSALONIKI – The inauguration of the pavilion of the Federal Republic of Germany, honored country of this year’s 88th TIF, took place on Saturday in the presence of Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and the Vice-Chancellor of Germany, Robert Habeck.

“The fact that 130 companies participate in the fair proves the strong economic ties between Greece and Germany. This testifies the fact that we have built a very strong economic bilateral partnership,” Mitsotakis underlined.

The Greek prime minister also referred to the difficult period in the relations of the two countries. “Greece went through an economic crisis and Germany’s views were sometimes distorted by the pain felt by Greek citizens. But the truth is that we have left those years behind us. The Greek economy is now growing rapidly, presenting a lot of opportunities for German companies to have a presence in Greece and to invest in Greece. We must not forget that Germany is one of the largest foreign investors in Greece. We should also not forget that during the years of the crisis, German companies continued to invest in the country,” Mitsotakis stated.

“TIF is an opportunity to strengthen our bilateral, economic ties, to identify new opportunities, as it is an important international fair. This is an excellent cooperation between Greece and Germany”, underlined the prime minister and noted that “we are faced with tremendous challenges, on particularly sensitive issues such as the green transition and climate change – we have been directly affected by the climate crisis in more Mediterranean countries.”

On his part, Germany’s Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister of Economy and Climate Protection, Robert Habeck, underlined he is proud that Germany is the honored country. “I have visited Greece in the past, the beaches of your country, but this is the first time I am in your country and specifically in Thessaloniki, in this historic international fair, as vice-chancellor and federal minister of Economy and Climate Protection. This is an international fair for the people, for the world, for all citizens and it is a great honor to present Germany in this place, created and granted to us by you Mr. Prime Minister, to organize the largest participation of German exhibitors which has taken place abroad in the last 25 years.”