Creating a hub in Piraeus

On 1 March the Piraeus parliament passed a ‘health bill’ which had an article tacked on which gave the green light to international commercial groups which opt to ship their products to Greece and use the country's ports as hubs from which to distribute them to other countries in the region will be exempt from paying value-added tax.

No sooner was this in place, than US computer giant Hewlett Packard (HP) sealed a deal with Cosco to move a key part of its regional supplies through Piraeus, a major step in the quest of Greece’s main port to become the Eastern Mediterranean's main hub port.

HP has agreed to use Piraeus as its prime distribution hub for central Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and eastern Europe. "We believe in Greece and the future of the Greek economy," said Tony Prophet, HP's senior vice president for operations.

Just how much Greece will gain from HP's $50bn (Euro 38bn) global supply and transport operation remains to be seen, but the country’s Prime minister Antonis Samaras, at the signing ceremony held in Cosco's Piraeus headquarters, said: "I wish to thank these two companies who are marking a new start for Piraeus through this dynamic move. Such investment will help our country deal with unemployment which remains the top item on this government's agenda."

HP will use Piraeus' pier II and pier III container terminals which are run by Cosco Pacific under a 35-year concession deal signed with the Piraeus Port Authority in 2010.

The HP / Cosco agreement coincided with completion of a new 17km (10.6-mile) railway line connecting Piraeus with the main European freight network. Greek state rail operator Trainose can now forward a train to HP's key European hub in Prague in five days, said Trainose chairman, Thanassis Ziliaskopoulos, who added by 2015, Trainose should be able to handle 2,000 trains a year.

Shipping and Aegean minister Kostis Mousouroulis said the rail link “will now make Piraeus port take off,” and will create new jobs.