Dynamic participation this year of Lever – Development Consultants S.A. – a member company of the Samaras & Partners Group – at this year’s Olympia Forum, Empowering cities & regions, which took place on 20-22 October. Thodoris Karipides, CEO of Lever – Development Consultants SA, participated on the 1st day of the Olympia Forum, in the panel “Digital Transition and FDI: Greece Beyond Athens”, while Mr. Polykarpos Karkavitsas, General Manager of Lever – Development Consultants S.A., participated on the 2nd day in Ancient Olympia (International Olympic Academy), in the panel entitled “Green Cities: Smart Sustainable Mobility Solutions”.

Mr. Karipidis, among others, very aptly underlined: “There are few times when a thin line separates utopia and reality. Two years ago, a discussion on the valuation of the economic and social results of investments by global technology leaders in Thessaloniki would have been utopia, but today it is reality. The most important direct benefits from the investments of Cisco, Pfizer, Delloite for the city are already many:

✅Thessalonica has re-entered the framework of entrepreneurship. For about 20 years, the city was characterized by deindustrialization, the lack of investment in infrastructure, its isolation from economic activity in the Balkans. It was a business-indifferent city, where even multinationals, which had a branch in Athens, disinvested the minimal personnel that remained in the city. Today, Thessaloniki, regardless of the maturity of these investments, has already acquired the identity of the center of technology development for Greece and perhaps subsequently for the Balkans. Proof of this is our panel at this important Forum

✅You are once again creating a model of professional orientation for the country’s youth, centered on Thessaloniki. In the IT and technology sector, our youth can find their dream job, in the company of their dreams and live in Thessaloniki

✅The “dead” -for the last 15 years- technology exhibition infacoma has been transformed into the dynamic Beyond

✅Multinationals of all sectors are reactivating in Thessaloniki. The increase in demand in the IT sector has caused an increase in salaries and made the labor market in Thessaloniki attractive for executives from Athens and Europe

✅The investment climate in the city has changed. The transformation of the investment intention into operating activities of technology multinationals in just one year has documented that in Thessaloniki, the institutions support investments, eliminate bureaucracy and thus reduce the risk for every potential investor.

✅The “hospitality industry” has moved with executives and technology and IT exhibitions held in the city.
Allow me to add that the challenge is now to produce technology products, not just services, in Thessaloniki as the immediate next step.

🔹When asked if other cities could benefit from Thessaloniki’s investments, he adds: “Obviously it’s not just Thessaloniki. However, cities that want to develop through attracting such investments must prepare themselves in terms of basic technological infrastructure and their attractiveness in terms of quality of life in order to attract executives. “Similar investments could be made in Halkidiki, in Western Macedonia due to delignification, in Agrafa due to biodiversity or in Kalamata or Volos and elsewhere. A place must choose its strategy for the development of new investments.”