Greek telecoms equipment manufacturer Intracom said yesterday it had signed a three-year 17.85-million-euro ($15.44 million) contract with Ericsson Microwave Systems to coproduce anti-artillery radar locating system Arthur WLS. “The contract...calls for the construction, assembly and final systems check (of the radar system) at Intracom’s facilities,” the company said in a statement. Arthur WLS is a moving radar system which helps locate artillery positions. Manned by a crew of three, it has very short deployment times. The project falls under Greece’s General Army Staff procurement program.(Reuters)

OTE Telecom yesterday announced the creation of Balkan Network Axis to facilitate the growth and integration of the company’s business in the region through optical fiber highways, the management of regional telephone traffic and links with other parts of the globe. It is hoped that OTE Globe will be based in Thessaloniki as of next June. “OTE is now a big European company and Thessaloniki the center of its growth in the Balkans and SE Europe,” said Deputy Transport and Communications Minister Spyros Vougias, who attended a special event in the city.

Greece’s business confidence index fell 0.3 percent in February in relation to January, according to a European Commission release in Brussels yesterday. The development was the result of a sharp drop in confidence in construction, which weighs 20 percent on the composite index, despite higher confidence in industry, consumers and the retail trade, which weigh 40, 20 and 20 percent respectively. The index rose in eight of the 15 EU member states and fell in five. Finland was stable and there was no data for Luxembourg.

Greek industrial production fell 4 percent year-on-year in December last year, compared with an 0.7-percent rise in November, the National Statistics Service said yesterday. It said the sharp drop was due to an extended cold snap in December which restricted or delayed production in a large number of companies across all sectors. Manufacturing output fell 5.3 percent year-on-year, contrasting with a 1.8-percent rise in November, mainly due to shrinkage in the sectors of food and beverages, clothing, plastic and rubber materials and non-metal ores. In the 12 months ending December 2001, Greece’s industrial output grew 1 percent year-on-year, with manufacturing expanding at 1.7 percent. (Reuters)

The 24th Furnidec and 9th Furnima international exhibitions of furniture and materials and equipment used in furniture manufacturing, which will take place concurrently March 7-11 at the Helexpo center in Thessaloniki, are hosting more exhibitors than in previous years. Furnidec will host 340 Greek and 55 exhibitors from 11 other countries, while Furnima will host 80 Greek and 48 foreign exhibitors from eight countries. The two events will be open 11 a.m.-9 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m.-9 p.m. at the weekend.