PM Samaras holds investment talks with IBM, Nestle executives

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras separately met on Monday with representatives of IBM and Nestle Hellas, to discuss business collaboration and expansion.

IMB President and CEO Virginia Rometty and IBM Hellas chief executive Spyros Poulidas discussed the government's intention to promote Greece as a technology and innovation hub in the greater area, developing the necessary technical expertise, attracting investments and using the existing human resources in Greece.

IBM expressed interest in collaboration with small and medium-sized enterprises, providing training and programmes to support them. It is also interested in creating a business analytics centre for investments in Europe, a project that could create about 120 positions for specialised staff.

Rometty explained how IMB works with governments using Big Data, Cloud Computing, Social Business networks and mobile technologies.

Poulidis said the company has a 75-year presence in the Greek market and is involved in projects that include free access to its products for research and study at Greek universities, linking them with institutions abroad and helping them create graduate programmes in Big Data and Business Analytics.

During Samaras' meeting with Nestle manager for Europe Laurent Freixe they discussed the expansion of the company's collaboration with Greek distributors, based on the company's four plants in Greece.

The company, Freixe said, had an investment programme that looked to create 10,000 new positions throughout Europe; in Greece, there would be 600 openings of a three-year duration each.