Greece’s negative business climate of 2003 was reversed in 2004, according to the Economic Climate Index (ECI). The economic conjuncture survey by the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research (IOBE) showed a 10.1 percent rise in January-December 2004 compared with 2003, Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas announced yesterday. In 2003 the ECI had fallen by 5.8 percent compared with the year before. The average ECI in the EU gained 9.2 percent last year. Business expectation indices in Greece showed a yearly rise in 2004 in industry (up 1.7 percent), in retailing (3.1 percent) and in services (13.7 percent). Only the construction sector fell (27.6 percent) in the post-Olympic period, but has rebounded in 2005, the minister said. Sioufas added that “2005 has started with positive developments for all sectoral indices, as in January they showed a great rise compared to December 2004.”

The “marriage” of tourism with sports through joint events, the promotion of common interest issues and the creation of the Hellenic Sports Tourism Council were the decisions by the deputy ministers for tourism development, Anastasios Liaskos, and sports, Giorgos Orfanos, in their meeting yesterday. The two men also discussed how to exploit touristically the international sporting events held in Greece, and how best to attract other events and even sports teams to Olympic sports and training venues.

The governors of the Bank of Greece, Nicholas Garganas, and the Central Bank of Cyprus, Christodoulos Christodoulou, will sign a cooperation memorandum today in Athens. It will regulate issues regarding the licensing procedure for bank branches or subsidiaries from one country to the other, the information exchange to this end, and will facilitate on-the-spot checks on banks by the auditing authority of the country of origin.

Natural gas companies DEPA of Greece, Botas of Turkey and Edison of Italy reaffirmed their commitment to the gas pipeline to link the three countries at their meeting in Ravenna, Italy yesterday. DEPA’s president Raphael Moysis and his counterparts found the project’s progress satisfactory and arranged to meet again in Turkey at the end of April to discuss the natural-gas carriage tariffs. The Turkish company estimates that construction of its part of the pipeline will begin in May, while the Greek part is already being constructed.

The Greek subsidiary of the Chinese telecom equipment company ZTE Corporation will hold a three-day exhibit at Ekali, northern Athens, from March 30 to April 1, as part of the pan-European roadshow by the Chinese market leader in advanced wireless technology products and services. The company has been active in Greece since last July, when OTE selected it as ADSL network provider for the Olympics.