The Protocol of the 5th Joint Inter-ministerial Committee between Greece and Saudi Arabia was signed today, Tuesday, May 31 2022 by Kostas Fragogiannis, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Openness, and HE Khalid Al-Falih, Minister of Investment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, successfully concluding a three-day visit to Greece by a large business delegation from Saudi Arabia.
The Protocol defines the next steps in the cooperation between Greece and Saudi Arabia in critical sectors such as tourism, shipping, health, agriculture, education, research and innovation. High level delegations from the two countries’ respective Ministries of Investment, Tourism, Shipping, Education, Environment and Energy, Health, Labour, Rural Development and Food participated in the works of the Committee.
In their introductory remarks, both Deputy Minister K. Fragogiannis and Saudi Minister of Investment Khalid Al-Falih voiced their absolute satisfaction with the two countries’ excellent political relations, expressing their conviction that this relationship will give impetus to bilateral economic and trade relations, where there is still great scope for strengthening cooperation. The two officials committed to continuing their efforts to promote and conclude agreements on specific business projects of mutual benefit to both countries.
To this end, the heads of terms of a Greek-Saudi agreement for the construction of a submarine and terrestrial optic data transmission cable system connecting Europe and Asia via Greece and Saudi Arabia, known as the East to Med data (EMC project), were agreed in principle today in the framework of the 5th Joint Inter-ministerial Committee.
This is a flagship project that takes advantage of Greece’s and Saudi Arabia’s geographical location to establish an essential data corridor between Europe and Asia for the global economy.
The project is led on the Saudi side by MENA HUB – which is owned by Saudi Arabia's digital telecommunications service provider STC - and on the Greek side by Telecommunication Telephony Satellite Applications S.A. (TTSA), with PPC and the Cypriot telecoms operator CyTA also being shareholders.
MENA HUB CEO Fahad Alhajeri, PPC President and CEO George Stasis, CyTA CEO Andreas Neocleous, and TTSA Executive Director Alexandros Sinka initialled the agreement's Heads of Terms in the presence of Deputy Minister K. Fragogiannis and Saudi Minister of Investment K. Al-Falih.
May 31, 2022