Τhe United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) acceptance of the Greek invitation to participate as an honoured country in the 86th Thessaloniki International Fair (TIF) is attributed to their desire to improve their business relations with Greece and to take advantage of Thessaloniki’s pivotal position as a bridge to the Balkans and south-eastern Europe, the president of TIF-Helexpo SA, Tassos Tzikas, said to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).
As for TIF-Helexpo SA’s own decision to extend this invitation to the UAE, he cited two reasons: firstly, the fact that the country is of strategic interest to Greece on a business level and, secondly, that today there are not enough business partnerships between the two sides, so there is great room for action while important perspectives are opening up.
Speaking to ANA, in the context of “Economia 2022”, Tzikas also described what the participation of the UAE entails, but also how they were welcomed by TIF and Thessaloniki (among other things, the main streets of the city were decorated with the national flags of the Emirates and Greece). He said that the 86th TIF will be attended by approximately 60 important companies, organisations and institutions from various sectors and around 300 business meetings will be held in just five days.
When asked whether the investment participation of the Arabs in a project to reconstruct the TIF exhibition centre will be sought while the representatives of the UAE are in Thessaloniki, he replied: “it is too early to talk about specific schemes (…) however, it is certain (…) that there will be selected presentations of the project to potential stakeholders”, taking advantage of the presence of the Arab delegation at the 86th TIF.
SOURCE; ANA-MPA
