Tsamichas Ioannis at Naftemporiki “Valuable Partners Greece & Italy”

ITALY has long been a valuable economic partner of Greece and undoubtedly the most important destination for Greek exports. The neighbour accounts for 12% of Greek exports and is consistently in the top four in imports.

The Greek-Italian Chamber of Athens is a constant partner in the investment race, an ally and advisor to Greek and Italian businesses. With a presence in 65 countries around the world, through the Association of Italian Chambers of Commerce and more than 1,000 members, it has been working for the expansion of economic and commercial cooperation between the two countries for over six decades, facilitating the implementation of investments.

At the same time, it continues for the second decade the highly successful and internationally recognised programme “Exporting more Greece to 83 bilateral Italian Chambers in 65 countries”, being the main partner of Italian companies operating in Greece and of Greek companies in the neighbouring country.

PROSPECTLY, the Greek-Italian Chamber of Athens announced the signing of a Protocol of Cooperation with the Industrialists’ Association of Naples, which provides that the two institutions will join forces and work together to further strengthen economic relations. For the implementation of the Protocol of Cooperation, the Hellenic-Italian Chamber of Athens and the Association of Industrialists of Naples have agreed to create an office – antenna for the member companies and consultants of the Hellenic-Italian Chamber of Athens. This office is expected to become a reference point in Southern Italy and to act as an information hub for investment opportunities in the Greek market.

ITALIAN investments, in recent years, have been strengthening the dynamics of the domestic market and upgrading Greece’s position in the global energy and connectivity maps.

The LARGEST international provider of telecommunications interconnection services in Italy and among the top ten in the world, the Italian Sparkle, in 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, commissioned Metamorfosis II, the first green data center in Greece, while it recently completed the laying of the Blue Med cable in the Mediterranean, landing it in Chania.

The laying of the Green Med submarine cable is also expected, which is expected to create an innovative fibre-optic network corridor to connect, via an alternative low-latency network, Italy with Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece and Turkey, before extending further into the Mediterranean. In addition, RENCO SpA and TERNA S.A. are proceeding, following a competitive tender process, with the construction of Microsoft’s first privately invested Data Center in Greece.

IN THE ENERGY SECTOR, Italian giants such as Snam and Italgas have for years been in control of critical energy infrastructure in Greece, while major Italian groups such as Edison and Enel Green Power, among others, are systematically investing in green energy, with onshore and especially offshore wind farms and photovoltaic parks.

Edison is also working to promote the EastMed pipeline and is attempting to retain Elpedison, one of the largest independent power and gas generators and providers in Greece, although HELLENiQ ENERGY has a different view.

The Italian group Renco SpA, following its successful participation in the construction of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, has also expressed interest in participating in the completion and extensions of the project.

The Greek investment foray in Italy has also begun, with the major investment of Mytilineos Group, which includes investments of over 3 billion and a portfolio of 180 projects with a total capacity of 3.59 GW, with investments in solar energy and the crucial issue of energy storage. And the Olympia Group’s Sunlight company is active in Italy, through its subsidiaries Sunlight Italy, and Sunlight European Battery Assembly (SEBA) with facilities in Verona. The company, in 2022, acquired 80% of Italian PBM.

Several infrastructure projects in Greece also have an ITALIAN stamp, with Italian companies undertaking projects in cooperation with Greek companies, such as the joint venture between ABAX, the Italian GHELLA and the French ALSTOM, which was the successful bidder in the tender for the construction of Line 4 of the Athens Metro, for the section “Also Veikou – Goudi”.