Greece economy briefing: Greece and the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE)

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Weekly Briefing, Vol. 45. No. 2 (GR) November 2021

 

Greece and the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE)

 

 

Summary

The 4th China International Expo (CIIE) was of a significant importance for the global economy, especially in the post COVID-19 era. It offered the opportunity for businesses to explore the huge Chinese market, which results in a positive impact to the global trade. Greece has participated to all four Exhibitions with a great success. This year’s presence of the country was focused mainly upon promoting Greek natural products. The CIIE 2021 was seen as an opportunity to deepen the cooperation between the two countries in the sectors of trade and investment.

 

Introduction

On the 5-10 November 2021 the 4th China International Expo (CIIE) was held in Shanghai. The CIIE offers to the countries the platform to promote their businesses, increase cooperation and support the prosperity of the world trade and economy in general. The last decades Greece and China cooperate closely mainly in the economic and cultural sectors. The CIIE offers Greece an opportunity to accelerate its cooperation with China in the sectors of trade and investment and promote its businesses to the Chinese market. This year’s presence of Greece to the CIIE was marked as profitable, despite the difficulties and travel limitations raised by the pandemic.

 

Greece-China economic and trade relations

Greece and China the last decades enjoy good political and economic relations. In 2006 the relations of the two countries upgraded to a Strategic Partnership with the aim to forge a mutually beneficial cooperation in a variety of sectors. Greece is a member of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC). Both initiatives aim to promote economic cooperation between the two countries.

An example of the successful economic cooperation of the two countries is the investment of COSCO in the port of Piraeus. On the 25th of October 2021, COSCO sealed the deal for increasing its share and in total own 67 percent of PPA shares. The port from the 93rd place in 2010 has been elevated to the 26th place worldwide in terms of ports and impacted by 0.78 percent to Greece’s GDP in 2020 (1). In 2021, COSCO Shipping Group investments in Peiraeus port exceeded 1 billion euros. The group invested 600 mil € in the construction of the piers 2 and 3, which led to the increase of container handling of over 7.2 mil TEUs. As Piraeus Port Authority Chairman Yu Zenggang recently stated, “We aim to reach a container throughput of 10 million TEUs so as to become the largest and most efficient logistic hub in Central and Eastern Europe” (2). Thus, Peiraeus has turned to an international hub interlinking Europe, the Balkans and the Middle East with China, making it a win-win project for both countries. In addition, despite the pandemic, Greek exports to China have steadily risen over the last years.

The two countries also cooperate in the promotion of culture and tourism. The year 2021, has been declared as the Year of Culture and Tourism and in this framework various events have been organized. The Hellenic Tourism Organization’s China Service celebrated on the 1st of October the Chinese National Day, with online activities, such as a live streaming competition and online campaigns, in collaboration with WeChat. These initiatives attracted the interest of millions of users and were characterized as a great success (3).

Moreover, the evolving bilateral cooperation has been emphasized by the frequent exchange of high-level visits, such as the visit of the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on 3-6 November 2019 in Shanghai, on the occasion of the Second International Import Expo. On the 10-12 November of 2019 the President of China, Xi Jinping, visited Athens. On 27 of October 2021 Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Athens and met with the Greek PM, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias, and other officials. A big part of the agenda of the recent visit was the analyses of the prospects for further expansion of the economic and investment relations between the two countries (4).

 

Greece’s presence at the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE)

At the 2017 Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation the Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China will hold from 2018 the China International Import Expo (CIIE). Through the initiative the Chinese government welcomed businesses, exhibitors, and government officials to explore the Chinese market. The opening of the Chinese market to the world was a significant move towards the support of economic globalization and trade. Hence, the initiative is of a great importance not only for China but for the promotion of the global economy by facilitating the countries to strengthen trade and economic cooperation in general (5). Especially in the times of COVID-19 pandemic, it should be mentioned that China was the only major economy to register growth in the trade of goods in 2020. Chinese exports in the second quarter of 2020 were already stabilizing and in the third quarter of 2020 were rebounding strongly, with growth rates almost 10 per cent year by year. The demand of imported products also gradually recovered. Notably, the relative recovery of global trade was largely driven by China in the second half of 2020 (6).

This year’s 4th CIIE held in Shanghai on 5-10 November 2021 offered a platform for businesses to promote their products, as well as the opportunity for boosting the global economy in a critical period of global fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic. The CIIE 2021 mainly comprised six exhibitions: food and agricultural products, general equipment, automobiles, consumer goods, services industry and medical devices and healthcare products (7). The exhibition occupied more than 366,000 square meters and drawn nearly 3,000 businesses from 127 countries and regions globally, from which 58 countries participated virtually. The total number of visitors exceeded 600.000 and during the exhibition more than 100 promotional events were organized (8). It was estimated that during the 4th CIIE approximately 70.62$ billion worth of intentional deals were signed (9).

Since the launch of the CIIE, Greece has participated in all four exhibitions. During the CIIE 2019, Greece was a Guest Country of Honor and the country’s delegation of approximately 60 companies was headed by the Greek PM K. Mitsotakis. The importance of CIIE to Greece was highlighted by Ms. Betty Alexandropoulou, the executive director and member of the board of Enterprise Greece, who recently stated that the exports of Greece to China have steadily risen during the last years and the CIIE has played a significant role to this increase. In particular, the year after the first CIIE in 2018, the exports of Greece to China doubled its size to approximately 1 billion euros. She also added that the commitment of China to maintain a welcoming trade environment underlines the fact that the two countries must move forward together through cooperation, especially since Greece is a world leader in shipping and China is the world’s largest exporter (10). Furthermore, on the framework of the 4th CIIE, the Greek Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Openness, Mr. Kostas Fragkogiannis, stated that the presence of Greece in the CIIE is considered to be successful and offers the opportunity for the people of the two countries to get together and establish paths of cooperation (11).

This year Greece participated in the 4th CIIE with a virtual National Pavilion along with enterprises based in China. The companies that participated were the following: Hellenic Agora Trading Limited, Hellas House, Shanghai Sailing Trading Co Premium Foods, Shanghai Pinhao Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., EleniKey and the Cooperative of Saffron and the main promoting products were Kozanis Saffron, olive oil, oils, cereal bars and cookies, wine, coffee etc. (8). Hence, this year’s presence in the CIIE focused on the growing demand for Greek natural foods, which are associated mainly with wellbeing and good health in correspondence to the growing consumer awareness and healthy lifestyle not only in China but globally (10). After the launch of the 4th CIIE an exhibitor and buyers matchmaking party was held, where Mr. and Ms. Kontomichalos, CEO and President of Hellas Group, participated and thanked the Changing District Government for its support (12). Furthermore, on the framework of the Exhibition, on the 9th of November 2021 was held in Shanghai the “Made in Greece” Wine, Beverage & Spirits Gala Dinner, a wine event to promote the Greek wine in the Chinese market. The event was sponsored by the Enterprise Greece and was organized in collaboration with the Consulate General of Greece in Shanghai. The event hosted 40 guests among which were selected Chinese wine importers and professional wine tasters (13). The CIIE 2021 also attended by the Piraeus Port Authority S.A. (PPA S.A.). Its representatives participated virtually, due to the COVID-19 restrictions. However, through the existence of a booth the PPA had the opportunity to promote its activities and services to the international audience participating (14).

The importance of the cooperation of the two countries was also highlighted by the recent statement of the PM K. Mitsotakis to a teleconference with the president of Forbes Media, Mr. Steve Forbes, which was reproduced to the Forbes event in Shanghai on the 9th of November with the name “Ancient Wisdom, Modern Compass”. The Greek PM stated that China is a big trading partner not only for Greece but for all. Moreover, he added that in terms of incoming tourism China is a huge market and Greece needs to build upon good cooperation with China in this sector (15).

 

Conclusion

Overall, the close cooperation of the two countries in the trade and investment sectors is fruitful. The participation of Greece at 4th CIIE, as in the previous years, gave the Greek businesses and products the opportunity to be promoted to the market of China. In the times of COVID-19 pandemic this is an important step to boost the trade of the country and its overall economy. Further future development of the economic cooperation of Greece and China is expected and welcomed by both sides in order to promote economic prosperity nationally and globally.

 

 

References

ΠΡΩΤΟ ΘΕΜΑ (2021) «Μητσοτάκης στο Forbes: Ανάπτυξη ακόμη και πάνω από 6,1% το 2021» Available in Greek at https://www.protothema.gr/politics/article/1179926/aisiodoxia-mitsotaki-sto-forbes-gia-anaptuxi-akomi-kai-pano-apo-61-to-2021/