Entrepreneurship can act as a bridge to peace and stability, stressed the vice president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ΑCCI), Sofia Kounenaki-Efraimoglou, speaking at the Greece-Turkey Business Forum, held in Istanbul. Present at the Forum were, among others, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, responsible for Economic Diplomacy and Extroversion, Tassos Hatzivassiliou, and his Turkish counterpart, Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay, who also delivered a speech.
“We are here in Istanbul as the Greek Chamber of Commerce and Industry in collaboration with the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, with which we have a long-standing collaboration. Last year with the mission in Istanbul and the B2B meetings organized, we laid the foundations in order to increase bilateral trade and investments, and today we see the results,” she said after the conclusion of the Forum and before the B2B meetings of entrepreneurs began.
“Young people from both countries can create joint companies and projects”
The vice president of the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) underlined the cooperation between the two countries in new technologies: “The organization of the ‘Greece-Turkey Hackathon 2024-2025’ was excellent, which we did in collaboration with ‘Bilisim Vadisi’ and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the two countries and the Ministry of Industry and Technology of Turkey. We saw that young entrepreneurs from both countries can collaborate, create joint companies and joint projects for the common good, and we want to continue what has brought excellent results.”
She also referred to the contacts that the Greek delegation had in Istanbul regarding the start-up ecosystems of Greece and Turkey: “We had a meeting yesterday at ‘BTM’, which is the very large incubator that belongs to the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce, just as we have ‘THEA’ at the ACCI, and we discussed cooperation, joint actions and joint investment projects for the start-ups of the two countries.”
In her speech, she stated that her presence in Istanbul is for her “a mission that brings together Greek and Turkish companies from dynamic sectors of the economy, such as IT, transport, telecommunications, energy, construction and food” and is “targeted, strategic and aligned with the long-term vision of the Greek-Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry to strengthen Greek-Turkish economic relations through dialogue, collaborations and investments.”
“Our economies are more complementary”
He said that Turkey has “a strong industrial base, a strategic geographical location, a huge internal market and a growing technology and innovation ecosystem”, while on the other hand “Greece has made a dynamic recovery, is positioned as a hub of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and is emerging as a particularly attractive destination for investment, green growth, digital transformation and innovation.” As she said, “our economies are more complementary than competitive, and that is exactly what we seek to highlight.”
“In February 2024, during a major business mission to Istanbul, the chambers of commerce of the two countries formalized their cooperation by signing a memorandum of understanding aimed at strengthening bilateral economic relations through structured cooperation, including the exchange of information, joint participation in business forums and facilitating collaborations between Greek and Turkish businesses.”
