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Greece

Embassy of Greece in Ottawa
Office for Economic and Commercial Affairs
80 MacLaren Street, Ottawa, ON, K2P 0K6, Canada

Dimitra Schina
First Secretary for Economic and Commercial Affairs, Head of the Office
Email: ecocom-ottawa@mfa.gr
Tel: +1 613 238 6271

General Consulate of Greece in Toronto
Office for Economic and Commercial Affairs
1075 Bay Street #600,Toronto, ON, M5S 2B1

Dionysios Protopapas
Senior Trade Commissioner
Tel. +1-416-5150132 x8237
Mob. +1-437-2314676
dprotopapas@mfa.gr;  ecocom-toronto@mfa.gr

Alexia Manousou
First Secretary for Economic and Commercial Affairs
T: 416-515-0132 ext.8222
ecocom-toronto@mfa.gr


Enterprise Greece Invest & Trade

Greece Fact Sheet

Over the last ten years, Greece has undergone a profound economic transformation. The country has adopted far-reaching reforms, cut taxes and red tape, and created a more business-friendly environment.

With its newfound competitiveness, its natural beauty and its Mediterranean lifestyle, Greece is attracting growing numbers of individual investors, foreign retirees, talented freelancers, and its own diaspora to its shores. The country is becoming a beacon with a new, more holistic narrative; one that has particular resonance in an era marked by a global pandemic and a climate emergency.

Apart from its many investment opportunities, Greece is also being recognized as a great place to live and to work. It offers a geostrategic location as well as quality of life, something that matters to business people, working professionals and their families.

The rising number of foreign investors, retirees, digital nomads and returning Greeks are making Greece a richer place and shows how much Greece has to offer.

Greek Economy – Greece’s economy is forecast to grow 7.1% this year, according to the latest autumn forecast by the European Commission, one of the fastest growth rates in the European Union and in line with other official estimates. The Commission’s upwardly revised forecast reflects a better-than-expected economic recovery, robust exports and a resilient tourism sector. Separately, the Greek government revised upward its forecast for 2021 growth to 7.0% from 6.1% previously.

Handling Covid-19 Pandemic − The Hellenic Government has taken all necessary measures to ensure a high vaccination rate of the population in order not only to protect public health but also to ensure that the country remains a tourism and investment friendly destination. To this end, it has also taken even stricter measures with a view to combatting the omicron mutation.

Greek Tourism − Greek tourism is poised for further growth in 2022 with early bookings up 30% compared with pre-pandemic levels and major airlines like EasyJet announcing a 500,000 increase in available seats to Greece next summer. Tourism revenues in 2021 are forecast to reach €12 billion. Greece was recognized as one of the world’s outstanding tourism destinations in a series of recent awards (Travvy Awards, Silver Award at the 25th edition of the annual American Readers’ Choice Awards).

Privatizations-Foreign Investments -In the period January-October 2021, 8 major acquisitions of Greek companies from foreign conglomerates or investment funds have taken place. These deals represented an amount of over 12 billion Euros (or roughly 17 billion Canadian dollars). What is different now compared to a couple of years ago is that foreign investors are not looking for Greek companies in financial distress but target instead healthy companies with high growth potential. The acquisitions aimed at sectors that offer a high rate of return, such as energy, food sector, life sciences, mobile telephony, insurance, and high technology. The recent flux of foreign investments in Greece, at a level never experienced ever before, proves that the Greek economy offers assets and opportunities that go way beyond the old recipe of sea and sun. A lot of the investment projects are co-financed by European Institutions (EIB, EBRD).

The new law for the acceleration of the processes in private and strategic investments ensures the necessary legal clarity and creates more attractive conditions for strategic investors. It includes new categories of strategic investments in modern sectors of the economy. It promotes research and development, biotechnology, robotics, artificial intelligence, space industry, digital business transformation, cloud computing, data centers, permanent film production facilities (studios), medical tourism, agri-food, waste and waste management.

Greece’s privatization agency, the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund expects to receive binding bids for the ports of Alexandroupoli, Igoumenitsa and Kavala within the first quarter of 2022. The agency expects to launch the privatization of Heraklion, Crete’s largest port, in the second quarter of next year.

Green Energy – It is one of the Government’s top priorities. To this end, energy interconnections have already been developed in cooperation with Eastern Mediterranean countries with a view to enhancing energy security.

Greek-Canadian Cooperation ­ – We believe that there is a great potential for further developing our trade and investment relations. Canada is among the most important foreign investors in Greece. We are looking forward to attracting more investments and enhancing our bilateral cooperation in strategic sectors, including tourism, energy (with a focus on green energy and renewables), information and telecommunication technologies, industry (comprising food sector), health services, environmental management (with a focus on waste management and recycling), logistics and real estate.