German investors choose Greece

Greece as a key country in the production of renewable energy sources (RES), the prospect of direct German investments, but also the production of green hydrogen and batteries, new technologies and recycling system, were some of the issues on which the minister of Development and Investments, Adonis Georgiadis, focused on during his three-day visit to the German capital, where, among other things, he participated in the Economic Conference of the FAZ newspaper along with German Finance minister Christian Lindner and his other European counterparts.

The contacts of Adonis Georgiadis were, however, basically of a business nature and not so much political, he said while speaking to Greek correspondents. “I am very pleased with the successive contacts with the German Chamber of Commerce and also with many companies regarding the possibility of investments in Greece. We will continue to have a series of delegation visits from Germany to Greece in the coming weeks,” he said to German agency DW.

As he clarified, the time horizon of the long-awaited German investments in Greece is around 18 months, while the emphasis is mainly on medium-sized enterprises and not so much on heavy German industry. However, as the Minister of Development and Investments observed, the business trend, especially in the RES sector, is particularly favorable for Greece, because Germany, in an effort to become independent from Russian natural gas, seeks to build green energy production structures within the EU.

Greece has changed and German investors have understood it

On the other hand, for Adonis Georgiadis, Greece is now winning on another level. “Everyone in the German business world has realized that Greece has turned a page,” he said characteristically. As he added emphatically, German businessmen seem to regret “because they had not invested in Greece earlier”. However, the visit to Berlin was very instructive, according to the minister, because he saw first hand “that the wounds of the past in Greek-German relations have healed. The Greek economy has changed, which German investors also see. The image of foreign investments was different, especially during the fiscal crisis, and completely different today.

Now German investors, leaving behind the crisis and the painful for Greece memoranda, are turning mainly to the energy sector, where Greece has been progressing at a rapid pace in recent years. After all, its ambitious goal is that by 2030, 70% of the energy produced will come from RES. The future of Greece is to become an exporter of renewable energy sources in Europe”, Adonis Georgiadis estimates, “with competitive advantages for the economy and of course tourism”.

If Germany slips into recession…

In the current geopolitical situation, the image of Germany is that of a country under pressure, which is looking for energy everywhere. The Greek minister also got this impression from his contacts in Berlin. On the other hand, Greece, at least in terms of energy, is adequately supplied. As he says, after all, the country had very little dependence on Russian natural gas.

But what if Germany slips into an unprecedented recession due to the energy crisis in the new year, as German economists predict? Will Greece remain unscathed or will it be affected by potential domino effects? For Adonis Georgiadis, the scenario of a recession in Germany is obviously what everyone wants to avoid, because “it would have wider consequences throughout Europe and of course also for the Greek economy, reducing the rate of growth”.

For Adonis Georgiasias, in any case, the time horizon of a full recovery of the Greek economy is directly intertwined with the end of the war in Ukraine. “If it happens immediately, then the recovery will have to be calculated within two years. The big question is what will happen if this war lasts many more years.”