"The Greece/Slovakia relation base is excellent, with no annoying friction. Further relationships can develop without a need for any previous problem settlements," says Vasilios N. Ikosipentarchos, ambassador of the Hellenic Republic in Slovakia.

Your Excellency, what are your central activities in Slovakia?

Ever since opening the Hellenic Republic Embassy in Slovakia we have made substantial effort to intensify mutual political, cultural, and mainly economic relations through personal contacts. The reasons are evident. Traditional agricultural commodities such as fruit and vegetables used to prevail in the Greek import structure to Slovakia in the past. Another pre-1993 issue was the absence of a Greek institute facilitating mutual trade.

What information channels do you use to inform on the co-operation potential between our entrepreneurs and Greek companies?

We place the emphasis at starting new and extending the existing contacts with Slovak companies. They have presently opportunities to prove their business capability and even to operate in Greece under certain conditions. The EU associated country status of Slovakia is essential. We took the first step last April by organising a three-week professional training course for Slovak businessmen. Top Greek managers were lecturing in Bratislava on possible utilisation of the common EU funds and on the marketing product strategy abroad. The second stage followed in May 1998. We invited twenty Slovak managers of major and medium size companies to Athens for another part of professional presentations on entrepreneurial conditions in our country. They also had the opportunity to meet representatives of the Greek companies top management.

Tourism is one of the significant Greek economy sectors. Do also Slovak residents participate in this area?

Yes, co-operation of our countries is thriving also in this area. We are pleased to have recorded an increased number of Slovak visitors over the past two years. We anticipate that the number of Slovak visitors will double this year compared to the last-year total of 80 thousand. The outcome, however, is not to be ascribed only to the scenic beauties of Greece, its historic sights or high-quality service, but also to efforts of the Greek state-owned tourism support agency, and also to engagement of other private companies, regularly attending the Bratislava Incheba international tourism fairs.

The tourism development depends on infrastructure development. What kind of programmes are in progress in this area?

In order to improve the transport infrastructure there is an intensive motorway project under way, built in the East-West direction, starting at the shore opposite the Corfu island and leading to the western coast of the country. This route is planned to be linked with the North-South course coming down from Scandinavian countries. The Greek government also signed a contract for a motorway project linking the Croatian Adriatic coast with our country via Albania. This development will support not only tourism, but will also improve the trade and goods transport. Several projects are related to Athens in relation with the planned 2004 Olympic Games: a new subway, state of the art airport, and motorway by-pass of the city are in progress.

Is there a chance for the Slovak companies to engage in the motorway developments in Greece?

Due to their high costs the participation on similar EU projects is subject to the international bidding. Since the reputation of the Slovak road building companies is well known, they may well enter the bidding process. Yet they have to establish a joint venture with a Greek or EU company, participating in the bid.

Also Bratislava is planning a subway development. Can you envisage some Greek/Slovak co-operation in this project?

Athens, as well as Bratislava, have many identical problems to be resolved in terms of the city by-pass infrastructure or subway construction. Although in Athens there is an old subway in service, we are building a new one to meet the present-day traffic challenge. We agreed with Jozef Moravčík, Bratislava mayor, to make co-operative arrangements for specialised teams to work on the Slovak capital subway project. The Greek engineers can contribute with their first-hand experience, and also their specific technical information input will be essential. In the long run I can foresee a plan for the Bratislava and Athens mayors to intensify their co-operation.

Last year the Slovak Gas Industry attended a privatisation bid for the gas distribution in some Greek towns. What was the outcome?

As the Slovak Gas Industry has an office in Greece, it took part in the bid issued for the 49 per cent share privatisation of the gas distribution network in Athens, Thesalonica and Volos. As far as I am informed, The Slovak Gas Industry was among the companies that got on the short list of the bid.

The Greek economy has a strong agricultural background. How did you cope with the EU admission economic impact in this area? Slovakia is in for similar problems in few years' time...

Your country is exerting effort to be included into the first group of the EU admission candidates. Yet this, indeed, calls for specific steps also in the sphere of agriculture. In Greece, too, prevailed fears from strong foreign competition and possible liquidation impact for our agriculture before the EU admission. Nevertheless, following repeated negotiations and with the EU consent we obtained a five-to-seven-year postponement. This gave chance for the farmers to accommodate to new conditions. Greece gained rich experience from the agriculture transformation process and it can be passed over to you. Two parallel processes are on the way in the EU: the Agenda 2000 programme focused internal structure improvements, and preparations for the admission of new members. New forms of agricultural policy are being searched. This topic is on the table now, since both the overall EU budget structure and agricultural production funding will change.

Which Slovak/Greek economic co-operation areas do you find promising?

It is our attempt to persuade not only the Greek companies on benefits of investments in Slovakia, but also Slovak entrepreneurs on a number of cost effective quality products available in Greece. Among them are traditionally the agricultural and food products, sold across the Balkan Peninsula. Until recently these countries made do with their own wines for example, yet today Greek wines became a standard retail store commodity. This fact proves both the quality and price acceptability. I know that Slovakia is a producer of excellent wines, but Greek wines might add that special touch to the wine selection.

A complete chain of the Greek clothing industry, including cotton production and processing, fabric and garment production is another field of interest. Similarly, shoe and leather processing industries are quite attractive in terms of price.

Ship building industry is another area of promising future for Slovak/Greek co-operation. The Slovak Shipyards in Komárno are capable of producing sea-going vessels, and this is why their co-operation with the Greek Piraeus Shipyards might be beneficial for both countries.