The Greek prime minister, as well as Development and Competitiveness Minister Kostis Hatzidakis and Shipping Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis who also attended the event, added that such investments contribute to efforts to tackle unemployment and improve the competitiveness of Greek economy.

Addressing the event, Chinese Ambassador to Greece Zou Xiaoli said he is convinced that the agreement will help Greece attract new investors and create more jobs.

"I sincerely hope that, under the auspices of the great spirit of friendship and cooperation between China and Greece, the ZTE Logistic Center, the COSCO PCT, the Huawei Logistic Center, and the other children of Piraeus port will grow up strong so as to bring prosperity to the big family of Piraeus port," Zou stressed in a reference to a famous Greek song "The Children of Piraeus port".

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Zou said as Chinese ambassador to Greece, he has a number of dreams.

"I dream that, in the near future, COSCO, ZTE, Huawei and other Chinese companies will be able to expand their investment on large scale in Piraeus Port and its surrounding areas. I dream that a Chinese Culture Center will be established soon in Athens. I dream that Greek universities and academic institutes will be more open and easily accessible to Chinese students and scholars.

"I dream that hundreds of thousands of Chinese tourists will come in Greece annually. I dream that archaeologists from our two countries will jointly explore and restore underground and underwater art treasures. I dream that flights will go direct between big cities in China and Greece. I believe these are also dreams shared by our two peoples. So, let's join hands and push these dreams to set sail from Piraeus port," Zou told the audience enthusiastically.

"Your dream is our dream," Samaras told Zou after he presented China's vision for the further enhancement of bilateral ties in all fields.

Welcoming ZTE to enter into the cooperation agreement with COSCO Greece, PCT CEO Fu Chengqiu said this step brings COSCO's goals - developing Piraeus port into the Mediterranean Sea container transport hub, transforming it into a distribution center for the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) region, and making it the Southern Europe gateway.

On his part, ZTE Vice President Zhou Jianfeng noted: "We believe that through the execution of this project, we will stimulate more logistics companies to expand their business in Greece, and that this will lead to the further improvement and enhancement of the local employment environment."