Ladies and Gentlemen,

Over the past few years, we have set as our objective the expansion of the Greek Foreign Ministry’s role, in order for it to be also a ministry for production.Our efforts have produced results.In the market world, it is now known that the promotion of the Greek economy’s externalisation is the key component of the Ministry’s mission.And everyone’s presence here today confirms that.Given this role, we decided to contribute to the organisation of this three-day event on Greek agricultural produce and foodstuffs, as soon as the idea was tabled by the Exporters’ Association of Northern Greece (SEVE) and the Prefecture of Imathia.

The organisers of this three-day event joined their forces with the Economic and Trade Affairs Bureau of Nothern Greece, as well as our diplomatic authorities from five major countries, in three different continents.The architects of this initiative were soon joined by other public authorities with a view to contributing towards the achievement of one common purpose:the Ministry of Rural Development and Food, the Minister of Macedonia and Thrace, the Prefecture of Thessaloniki, the Chamber of Commerce of Thessaloniki, the Chamber of Commerce of Imathia, the Hellenic Milk Organ (ELOG), AGROCERT, cooperated with us to ensure the successful organisation of this event.A warm thanks to all of you.

As a result of this cooperation, it is with great pleasure that we would like to welcome our forty or so distinguished foreign guests from New York, Moscow, Beijing, Shanghai, New Delhi, Kyiv, and Odessa.In the next two days, you will have more than a thousand meetings with around one hundred Greek enterprises in order to examine the prospects for a future cooperation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our active economic diplomacy has been making the most of our broad network of diplomatic authorities abroad, and a structured plan for strengthening extroversion, thus paving new ways for Greek businesses.This is a significant change and Greece’s business community is on our side towards the achievement of this goal.

I would like to assure you all:Me and my partners consider the Foreign Ministry’s business availability and adequacy – as tools for bolstering Greek entrepreneurship – a personal bet, completely in line with the political pursuit of more externalization.

Our economic diplomacy helps attract foreign investments, promote exports and internationalise Greek businesses in the following manners:

1.By creating the right political climate and promoting the right institutional framework that would facilitate economic transactions.

2.By providing reliable, specialised and objective information on specific enterprises and markets.The Agora portal gives Greek businesspeople general and personalised information on markets and opportunities in countries with Greek Economic and Trade Affairs’ Bureaus, whereas the Aidfunding search engine helps them look for development funding opportunities.

3.By facilitating business networking through events like this one.

4.By promoting our country’s merits as an investment destination.

5.By supporting our businesses abroad in a tangible manner, when they are faced with bureaucratic problems, distorted competition or bad treatment from local authorities.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The make up of our target-markets chosen by the organisers of this three-day event give us an indication of the world in which we live in.These markets are very different, but they are all dynamic.They have incorporated the notion of reform in their philosophy, both as an everyday practice and as a constant need.Furthermore, these markets institutionally shape and influence world trade.The present era’s messages are clear to everyone.Economies like our own cannot pretend they are not getting these messages.The time when we thought we could prejudge the future is long gone.

For example, let’s see what’s happening in our European home.We should reflect on the issue of the Common Agricultural Policy, an issue that is linked with the thematic of this event and with the area that hosts it, a purely agricultural region:The only thing that is certain is that no one knows what will happen after 2013, when the new CAP expires.At the European level, there is an ongoing discussion about the CAP’s financial cost, its redistributing effect and the burden that it represents for consumers and taxpayers.Nothing has been clarified regarding the form that it will take on in future.

Apart from the inter-European dialogue, there is also strong outside pressure to put the CAP’s basic premises into question. This issue is also examined within the framework of the multilateral EU trade relations and competition as part of the WTO Doha Round.

This means that we should be prepared for any changes that might come up.Greek farmers need to familiarize themselves with notions and practices that they did not need to know before, when they had the certainty of the old subsidy regime, as it stood.

This is why events such as this one are of great importance.The visit of potential foreign buyers for Greek agricultural produce – both fresh and processed – to a region of major high-quality production shows local producers the importance that they should place on the competitiveness of their products.They should realise that the customers of Greek producers are not Greek exporters , but rather the millions of consumers in our traditional markets, but also in new markets;markets that we have been trying to penetrate through various actions such as the three-day event we inaugurate today and any other initiatives under development.There cannot be successful trade if we do not take into account their specific demands.

At this point, I would like to stress that I was pleased to know that the visit of Russian inspectors to Imathia and Central Macedonia was completed successfully.I think the key to success lies in the fact that all the players in the Prefecture cooperated effectively in order to create a control system that would correspond to the wishes of your clients, Mr. Prefect.The more substantial aspect is that you made it clear to the producers that your exported products, and more specifically peaches and kiwis, depend on the way in which they manage their fields and the way in which you yourselves created a reliable mechanism for sampling and controls, particularly for specific exports.

The Greek state carried out its mission.For our part, the Foreign Ministry put bilateral pressure across all levels in order for the six private laboratories that were proposed for accreditation by the Ministry of Rural Development and Food to be accepted, and this was no mean task, I assure you.It also contributed to the realisation, the organisation and the successful completion of the inspectors’ visit.

Things are now in our hands. The credibility and quality of your products is decided long before they are even harvested, and this is not a matter for the state. Of course, we need to study the possibility and the potential for signing a new text – an addendum that will clarify matters that concern Greece’s implementation of the memorandum signed by the EU and Russia, and we will work towards this end at the Foreign Ministry, as well as at the Ministry of Rural Development & Foods. But I insist that the key to success lies elsewhere, in the private sector; that is, initially with the Greek farmer, and then with the enterprises that undertake packaging, processing, marketing, sale and distribution. The era of delusion – wherein producers worked with only the subsidy they would receive in mind – has ended once and for all. The customer stands before him and – let’s not forget the most basic of commercial adages – the customer is always right.

Let us once again use the example of Russia, which is an important objective of production in the regions of Imathia and Pella. The country’s authorities have set a ceiling on chemical residuals that is not as stringent as corresponding European ceilings. This decision on their part points to the path we must take. It brings to the fore the need for universal adoption of new targets and implementation of new practices that correspond to the prevailing international trend and are aimed at reducing the catastrophic build-up of toxins in the food chain and protecting the environment.

Not long from now, stricter regulations will come into effect internationally. Greek agricultural production has no choice but to come into line with this reality. Competitiveness, externalization and innovation are notions that must penetrate and establish themselves, once and for all, in the Greek agricultural sector – now, in good time. There is no room for delays.

Dear Friends,

The messages of the times are clear. In the future, we cannot base Greece’s new development course, as we did over the past 25 years, on large deficits, excessive private lending or European funding.

We have to seek elsewhere the engine of tomorrow’s growth. We need to revise our priorities:

First of all, in the direction of innovation, in all sectors. Emphasis on innovation is a prerequisite for our successful presence in an extremely competitive environment. To avoid falling behind, we need to take a qualitative leap ahead. We need to invest substantially in education and knowledge, in research and the use of new technologies, in utilizing modern forms of energy, and in “green development”, where we are lagging behind significantly. And we all have to make this investment in innovation: the state, enterprises, society as a whole.

A second prerequisite for sustaining our development course is – as I said earlier – externalization. If we want to maintain high growth rates, the source must be promotion of exports, attraction of direct foreign investment, internationalization of Greek enterprises. Important work is already being done in this direction by the government as a whole and the Foreign Ministry in particular. The positive results of this policy are confirmed by the leading position of Greek investment capital in the Balkans, as well as by the significant penetration into markets like those of the Persian Gulf, the Caucasus and the Far East. It is obvious that as the global economy gradually emerges from the crisis we will intensify our efforts in the direction of strengthening externalization, constantly creating new development advantages for the years to come.

The third point that I would like to refer to concerns a fundamental change in our attitude to pursuing prosperity and the notion of success for our country. We need to reintroduce into our collective consciousness the perception that prosperity and success depend first and foremost on systematic work.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the time allowed me by my international obligations as Foreign Minister, I try to travel throughout Greece. I am very familiar with the Greek periphery and enjoy coming into contact with the people there. Wherever I go, I meet people with a vision for themselves, their families, the areas where they live. Very creative people with a passion for what they do, with dignity, with self-confidence.

I see many such people here in this hall. You are all people with drive, ideas and a desire to work towards a common goal. People who serve their locales with dedication; elected leaders of a creative local government; people who fight for the progress of the local economy; people who on their own opened the door of development in our neighbourhood; businesspersons who honour creative private initiative. Our guests will meet with all of you, who have come from all over Greece. They will have to opportunity to gain insight into high quality, strong enterprises that are tried and tested. At the same time, they will be able to familiarise themselves with Greece’s brilliant history. I think they got an excellent first taste with their morning visit to Vergina and the tomb of the Macedonian King Phillip II: a poignant archaeological site that I had the honour of opening some 16 years ago, when I was Culture Minister.

I think that it is their great good fortune – at the most beautiful time of year – to visit and have the opportunity to explore one of the most beautiful, important and most dynamic agricultural areas of Greece, with its large variety of crops and its major processing units. The land of Greek Macedonia.

And I am particularly fortunate to have the honor of declaring the opening of these three-day proceedings. I wish you the best of results.

Thank you.