OREANDA-NEWS. July 04, 2013. On the visiting Chairman of COSCO Group Capt. Wei Jiafu attended  opening ceremony of pier 3 of port of Piraeus in Greece. According to the concession agreement, the new pier was constructed by PCT-Piraeus Container Terminal S.A., an operating arm of COSCO Pacific.

The container terminal of port of Piraeus has become the terminal with deepest draft, and the state of the art facilities in the Mediterranean regions. Greek Prime Minister Antonio Samaras  was present at the ceremony and delivered the keynote speech to more than 120 participants including the Chinese Ambassador to Greece Du Qiwen, ministers of Greece government, key accounts of COSCO and other guests from Greek communities.

In Capt. Wei's speech, he said that when COSCO took over the terminal, the annual throughputs were only 166,000 TEUs while in year 2012, the figure hit 2.1 million TEUs. It is projected that in year 2013, the throughputs will reach 2.5 million TEUs. Since the taking-over, COSCO has directly created 1000 jobs for local economies. Capt. Wei also believes that the opening of pier 3 will advance COSCO's business development and create more job for locals.

Prime Minister Samaras firstly greeted the audience in Chinese "Ni Hao, COSCO!", and in his speech, the Prime Minister said that the new terminal expansion project will provide 700 more jobs to Greece. He spoke highly of Capt. Wei as the true friend to Greece and the Prime Minister also reiterated that the Greek government would give its strong support the terminal expansion project and further strengthen the exiting cooperation with COSCO and China in all respects. He firmly believes the forthcoming collaborations are not only mutually beneficial to China and Greece, but also to the entire EU countries. At the ceremony, Capt. Wei and Prime Samaras jointly cut the ribbons to announce the formal opening of pier 3 of port of Piraeus.

After the event, Capt. Wei paid a visit to Chinese Ambassador to Greece Du Qiwen who commended COSCO's contribution in Greece during the meeting with COSCO delegation.