TOKYO – Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, speaking at the Greek-Japanese Business Forum, told prospective investors that they should look at investing in Greece because it has rebounded and offers them opportunities.

He was speaking at the event organized at the offices of JETRO, the Japan External Trade Organization in Tokyo, during which the group signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Enterprise Greece, which helped organize the event.

“It is extremely important to use all the opportunities at our disposal to bring together Japanese and Greek companies to explore mutually beneficial opportunities. And the reason why we arranged this trip to Japan has to do primarily with the importance we assign towards strengthening the bilateral business relations between our two countries,” said Mitsotakis.

“If you look at where Greece was five or ten years ago, it would be difficult to envision that today Greece would be one of the leaders in growth rates in Europe, one of the countries that is at the forefront of both the green and the digital transition. Yet this has happened,” he added.

“There are many compelling reasons why a Japanese company would consider to invest in Greece. It is not just our unique geographical location at the crossroads of three continents,” he said, his office reported.
“It is not just the fact that we offer access to the largest single market in the world. It is also related to the fact that our government is deeply committed to make the life and operations of every single foreign investor in Greece as easy and as seamlessly as possible,” he said.

“When you look at Greece, you see a country that, in our mind, is offering very interesting investment opportunities across the board in numerous sectors, not just tourism. Of course, Greece and Japan are world class tourist destinations, but also in areas such as infrastructure, renewables services, areas related to the green and the digital transition,” he said.

He said that his visit provided an opportunity for Greek companies to meet Japanese companies and to mutually explore beneficial business opportunities, noting that governments are the go-between.

“we can create the proper conditions for Japanese companies to invest in Greece and for Greek companies to increase their footprint in the Japanese market. And I do hope that this forum will offer us the opportunity to do exactly that,” he said.

“Hopefully we will see more interest by Japanese companies to invest in Greece, but also a greater interest by Greek companies to penetrate the Japanese markets. After all, we should not forget that Greek shipowners started building their first ships in Japan immediately after the Second World War. And in their own way, I think, have also contributed to the phenomenal success of the Japanese economy,” he said.

He said there were “interesting investment opportunities” Greece has to offer in a multitude of areas, not only in tourism but also in sectors such as infrastructure, renewable energy, services and in fields related to green and digital transition.”

Speaking at the University of Tokyo, he said that, “The history of today’s Greece is a history of dynamic economic transformation,” he said, stressing that Greece is close to regaining investment grade status. “We expect growth close to 2 percent, despite many adversities and challenges, in 2023,” he noted.

The economy grew 5.6 percent in 2022 on the back of a big tourism year but also with his New Democracy government able to get more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to accelerate recovery.