Greek Companies prospering in Poland (Warsaw Business Journal)

Greece has made the headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2011, with the country being hit by political turmoil as it struggles under the effects of the economic crisis. However, for many Greek companies based inPoland, this year has been business as usual.
There are currently about 40 companies with Greek capital active in the Polish market, according to figures from the Embassy of Greece in Warsaw.
Greek-owned companies have invested more than €1.4 billion and created a total of 11,000 jobs in Poland, the country’s ambassador to Poland, Gabriel Coptsidis, said in a statement earlier this year.
Mellon Group, a company headquartered in Athens specializing in IT services and sales for financial institutions, telecommunications firms and companies in the retail sector, established itself in the Polish market almost six years ago. A growing Polish client base, which includes lenders such as PKO Bank Polski, Polbank EFG, and mBank, helped Mellon Poland make it in to the top 100 companies of Europe’s 500 fastest growing companies in 2010. Europe’s 500, which makes the ranking, is an association of fast growing owner-managed companies in Europe.
“This year is better than the previous one, and we have not been affected,” said Grigorios Kotoulas, General Manager, Mellon Poland. “However, we see in the market that there is a slowdown, but not a recession. We are making plans accordingly but none that … will affect our forecast for2012”, he added.
For Lefteris Maroulis, general director of sports betting firm Totolotek (owned by Greek company Intralot), business has been going well inPoland. Totolotek is a company which has been organizing sports betting in Poland since 1992 and operates close to 400 locations in the country.
(Warsaw Business Journal, 20/12/2011)

Για την προετοιμασία του άρθρου η δημοσιογράφος Veronika Joy συνεργάστηκε με το Γραφείο Τύπου και το Γραφείο Οικονομικών και Εμπορικών Υποθέσεων.

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(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)    Chinese President Hu Jintao is scheduled to arrive in Athens on Monday, November 24, and it is expected that this visit will herald a new era in bilateral relations between Greece and China, which date back to 1972. The recent development of Sino-Greek relations has been stunning, especially in the sectors of economy and culture. After Athens hosted the Olympic Games 2004, preparations for the Olympic event in Beijing began, which required officials to meet regularly and discuss everything from know-how to security. These meetings soon expanded to include not only sports, but also trade, shipping and tourism. Discussions have helped China’s Cosco Pacific take over the cargo management services of state-controlled Piraeus port in a 35-year deal assessed to be worth €4.3 billion, and the Chinese president is expected to seal the deal officially during his trip next week. Other sectors of trade include lottery and jewellery: lottery systems supplier Intralot is a Greek company expanding into the Chinese market, and the Folli-Follie group has more than 80 points of sale in China. The population of the Chinese community in Greece – estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 – is not merely interested in commercial relations with Greece, but also in evolving into a prosperous and integrated community, on many levels, throughout the country. Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Greek- Chinese Bilateral Relations; Embassy of Greece in Beijing: www.grpressbeijing.com Mediainfo2004.gr: From Athens to Beijing; InterChina Cultural Centre in Piraeus: www.interchina.gr Secretariat General of Information: Feature Stories-The Greeks and the Chinese: Doing business for aeons (Economist, 21.08.08)