The Greek Foreign Ministry developed two websites in order to support the local businesses, which want to establish themselves abroad. One of the websites is www.agora.mfa.gr and is targeted towards Greek businessmen, who want to invest abroad; and the other one is www.aidfunding.mfa.gr and it is targeting the contractors who want to participate in international tenders and contests for deliveries from international companies.

www.agora.mfa.gr

The website exists for several years but from September 2008 it has been completely renewed. It provides information for all countries around the world – from general information to analysis of the business environment, the tax policies, and macroeconomic indexes. “What we did was to import the whole information we have online according to countries. Internal department reports with very useful information, which was read by few people and then left aside on the desk are now accessible online,” says the chief secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Theodoris Silakakis.

Since September www.agora.mfa.gr was visited by 95 thousand people, who have opened over 2 million pages. The website gives the user the opportunity to sign up for a newsletter, which is personalized to the highest degree. The users can choose a geographical region or a country, the type of production it has, specific economic and financial data, and also how often to receive this newsletter – every day, every week, every two weeks, or every month.

www.aidfunding.mfa.gr

The website provides information about current and future tenders and contests for the delivery of different types of goods and services intended for international organizations. “Each year the different international organizations, such as the UN, the World Bank, Europaid, give over 50 billion Euros in order to get different products or services. Our assessment is that in the next few years, this amount will increase significantly. At the same time, the share of the Greek companies, which manage to get international orders is very small,” stresses the Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni at the official opening of the two websites in front of diplomats, businessmen, and journalists.

In order to fill this gap, the diplomatic department has prepared the new website. In it, businessmen will also be able to find out how to prepare their documents in order to participate in tenders and contests and it will also be very useful for the small and medium firms. The website has a very smart search tool, which is able to find very specific markets.