On 6 July 2016, Capt. Xu Lirong, Chairman of China COSCO Shipping Corporation Limited (“COSCO SHIPPING” or “the Group”), met with H.E. Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic, in Shanghai during the PM’s official visit to China. The two sides had a warm and friendly conversation about strengthening cooperation on ports, logistics and economic and trade exchanges.

Capt. Xu Lirong extended a warm welcome to the Greek delegation headed by Prime Minister Tsipras and expressed deep gratitude to the Greek government for its support for COSCO SHIPPING’s acquisition of the majority of equities in the Piraeus Port Authority. He pointed out that the acquisition is a significant move for the Group to make full use of the strategic opportunities provided by the Belt and Road initiative, to improve the competitiveness of its portfolio of overseas terminals, and to further expand its global operating network. After the transaction is completed, Port of Piraeus will act as an important hub in the Mediterranean region, promoting coordinated growth of the Group’s business in global shipping, terminal operation, logistics, shipbuilding, etc. The Group is confident of building the Port into a world-class port and logistics center in the Mediterranean region, a major gateway on China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line, and a main trade corridor that connects Asia and Europe.

Capt. Xu Lirong said that COSCO SHIPPING has been making high-quality investments in the Port since 2009. Over the last few years, the Group has successfully enhanced the competitiveness and presence of the Port in international shipping industry, and greatly contributed to local economy. Piraeus has become a modern container terminal with large handling capacity and leading technology, the fastest growing port in terms of throughput among the global top 100 container ports, and an important hub for many international container lines in East Mediterranean. In the future, COSCO SHIPPING will invest another EUR 500 million on basis of the EUR 350 million investments stipulated in the Concession Plan, in order to construct or improve cruise facilities, container terminals, ship building zone and auto terminals. The investment plan includes the construction of a cruise port which can accommodate the world’s largest luxury cruise ships, as well as a passenger transportation center with a capacity of 10,000 passengers, making Port of Piraeus one of the biggest home ports for cruise ships in the world. The investment will also be used to upgrade the container terminal facilities, which will help forge synergy between Piraeus Container Terminal Co., Ltd (PCT) and Piraeus Port Authority (PPA), increasing the annual throughput of the Port to 10 million tons. The investment will be allocated to build logistics and warehousing facilities and accelerate the construction of China-Europe Land-Sea Express Line, in a way that will make Port of Piraeus one of Europe’s largest container ports. COSCO SHIPPING will invest in a 300,000DWT dock, improve supporting infrastructures, so as to boost the ship repair capacity and seek opportunities of repairing offshore equipment. Furthermore, the Group will invest in a new parking facility, which will make the Port the largest auto terminal in the Mediterranean. Capt. Xu Lirong pointed out that these investments will hopefully create 31,000 jobs in Greece, and increase the value of Greece’s logistics industry from EUR 400 million to EUR 2.5 billion. COSCO SHIPPING will further drive Piraeus Port’s business growth and boost its profitability, and continue to contribute to Greece’s local economy.

Prime Minister Tsipras said that the Piraeus project is an important part and good demonstration of the strategic cooperation between Greece and China, and the Greek parliament’s approval of the concession agreement sets a milestone in the two countries’ bilateral relations. He pointed out that China is implementing the Belt and Road initiative, while Greece will leverage on its unparalleled geographical location to become one of the global transition centers, so the two countries have many strategies in common. Upon the completion of the acquisition, China could be physically connected with Europe through Port of Piraeus in a more efficient manner, and a bridge between Asia and Europe could be built. Greece is greatly encouraged by COSCO SHIPPING’s investment plan. The Greek government will firmly promote the execution of the Concession Plan to turn the Piraeus project into a model for Greece-China and China–Europe partnership.

The Prime Minister was accompanied at the meeting by Mr. Aristides Baltas, Minister of Culture and Sports; Mr. Costas Fotakis, Alternate Minister for Research & Innovation; and Mr. Vassilios Costis, the Greek Ambassador to China. The meeting was also attended by Mr. Zou Xiaoli, Chinese Ambassador to Greece; Madam Sun Yueying, CFO of COSCO SHIPPING; Mr. Sun Jiakang, Mr. Huang Xiaowen, Mr. Wang Yuhang, Mr. Yu Zenggang, Executive Vice President of COSCO SHIPPING, and representatives from relevant divisions of the headquarters and subsidiaries.