It is a great pleasure to be asked to close this Business Seminar, which has brought together Greek and Portuguese entrepreneurs to discuss the economic challenges that they face and the new opportunities that an enlarged Europe will have to offer to both Portugal and Greece.

I would first like to say how happy I am to see all the participants here today and express my conviction of the importance of initiatives like this one in helping Portugal and Greece get to know each other better and in contributing to the development of economic and trade relations between our two countries.

The importance of the delegation accompanying me on this visit clearly demonstrates the interest aroused in Portugal by the business opportunities that Greece has to offer, not only in terms of the number of Portuguese entrepreneurs here today - more than fifty – but also, and especially, because of the quality of the delegation. From banking to the building industry, which are sectors where there are already highly promising Portuguese-Greek partnerships, from traditional products such as textiles, footwear or porcelain, where Portugal already has a fine reputation in this market, to high-tech industries, some of the most important members of the Portuguese business community are here with us today.

My presence here, together with the Ministers of the Economy and of Public Works, is intended to show that the Portuguese authorities welcome and encourage this commitment by Portuguese entrepreneurs to business relations between our two countries, which are already solid and promising, but still have considerable potential for development.

I would also like to say how much I appreciate the presence at this seminar of several members of the Greek government, and of the considerable number of entrepreneurs from your beautiful country, with whom the Portuguese entrepreneurs have already scheduled more than 250 bilateral meetings, beginning this afternoon. I am sure that these contacts will result in new friendships and new business prospects, to the mutual benefit of our two countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen

The last decade has been a period of deep and rapid transformations, which have brought significant changes in the European economies.

Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), which culminated in the physical introduction of the euro at the beginning of this year, a currency that we are proud to share, is the mainstay and strength of the European economy. With enlargement to ten new members, expected to occur in 2004, the single European market will boast a total of 500 million consumers. An enlargement of this magnitude certainly represents a great challenge to the European Union, but it also constitutes a great opportunity.

Just like Greece, Portugal has supported enlargement right from the start, though not without some apprehension as to its impact on the Portuguese economy. These concerns should be taken into account, but they should not be exaggerated and should certainly not blind us to the opportunities that enlargement also brings to the European economy, from which Greece and Portugal are sure to benefit.

I believe that enlargement will also open up new opportunities for cooperation between Greek and Portuguese companies, whose experience in certain areas – I am thinking, for example, of public works or banking – may be of benefit to the countries that will soon be joining us in the European Union. The same applies to countries like Turkey, or even Russia, and to the Balkan region, areas in relation to which Greece is in a particularly favourable position.

Indeed, there have been encouraging examples of the opportunities for partnerships between Greek and Portuguese companies in this field. This is the case, for example, of the partnership between Banco Comercial Português and Novabank, which has already made a place for itself in this market and is planning to extend its activities to Turkey in the near future.

I would like to remind the Greek entrepreneurs that Portugal is, today, a modern, attractive country with good material and institutional infrastructures for supporting economic development and that it shares with Greece the whole acquis communautaire of the European Union, the best guarantee of political and economic stability that it is possible to offer to foreign investors.

Although Portugal is known mainly for its traditional products, I would like to point out that it also has high-technology sectors, in which Portuguese companies have clearly shown their excellence and capacity for innovation. Examples of this are the moulding industry, mobile telephony, electronic motorway toll systems or the wide range of services at customers’ disposal in the field of electronic banking.

I would also like to stress that, in the last decade, the Portuguese economy has entered a new phase of internationalisation, which is reflected by the substantial number of Portuguese companies now operating in Brazil, in the Portuguese-speaking African countries and, on a smaller scale, in Spain and the Maghreb.

The development of international business exchanges is a win-win situation, in which both sides have a lot to gain. In terms of both trade and investments, there are still very few exchanges between our two countries. I am therefore convinced that there is considerable room for development of our relationship to our mutual advantage, not only on a bilateral scale but also, as I have already mentioned, through partnerships that may open the door to much larger markets.

On the other hand, the huge investments in infrastructure that Greece and Portugal have been making, with special emphasis, in your case, on the Olympic Games in 2004, and, in our case, on investments in the European Football Championship, also in 2004, open up excellent opportunities for cooperation between companies from our two countries with competence and experience in project development and public works, many of which are represented here today.

In these, as in other fields, we have to join forces and, taking advantage of the dynamism of the entrepreneurs who regard internationalisation and globalisation as opportunities and not threats, find the complementarities that will help develop our relations, which the balance in our countries’ size and degree of development should stimulate.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to end with two points. The first is to express my wish that Portugal and Greece, as geographically peripheral countries with a smaller economic and demographic expression in the European Union, can defend the principles of equality between states and of economic and social cohesion in the EU institutions, as they are essential conditions for the joint development of the European Union as a whole, not only as a huge single market but also as a vast area of citizenship and solidarity.

The second is to express my vote of confidence in Portuguese and Greek entrepreneurs and my hope that, now or later, this visit will result in new contacts and new business agreements that will enable balanced economic and commercial relations between our two countries to develop to our mutual advantage.