Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-11-08

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Greece, Arab countries sound out business cooperation

[02] AIA marks rise in passenger traffic

[03] UNESCO lauds Vartholomeos initiative

[01] Greece, Arab countries sound out business cooperation

"There are many opportunities for Greek-Arab cooperation, which require appropriate preparation for successful implemenation," Shafik Gabr, president of Egypt's Arab Business Council, told a conference in Athens arranged by the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce.

Sectors of interest to Greek investors included trade, information technology, telecoms and banking, while tourism could act as bridge to strengthen ties between Greece and the Arab world, Gabr said.

The chairman of Shamil Bank of Bahrain, Khalid Abdullah-Janahi, told the conference that Greece could attract investments from Arab countries, but competition was tough from countries including China and India.

[02] AIA marks rise in passenger traffic

The airport said international passenger traffic grew 9.0 pct, reflecting an 8.7-pct rise in scheduled flights and a 23.2-pct jump in charter flights, while domestic traffic rose 2.3 percent. Steadily rising traffic ranked the Athens International Airport among the list of rapidly growing large European airports (with annual traffic more than 10 million passengers).

Passenger traffic in the July-September period totaled 4.6 million passengers, an increase of 5.0 percent from the same period last year, while domestic traffic jumped 7.8 percent and 9.0 percent in July and August, respectively.

[03] UNESCO lauds Vartholomeos initiative

The two-day conference, titled "Peace and Tolerance," began in Istanbul on Monday and aims to promote dialogue and understanding among the peoples of southeastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia.

In his written massage, Matsuura expressed UNESCO's full support for any effort aimed at encouraging dialogue among religious groups and hails the current and previous initiatives of Vartholomeos.

Matsuura also stated that dialogue among religious groups will consitute one of UNESCO's top priorities in coming years and expressed the hope to cooperate with the representatives of those countries participating at the two-day conference in Istanbul.

According to Matsuura, extra care is needed in these countries due to regional tensions and an overall delicate situation. To this end, Matsuura said that UNESCO is planning a series of events.

On November 30, the organisation will be holding a seminar regarding a dialogue between France and Turkey, while in the beginning of 2006 UNESCO will be putting together educational material regarding inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, that will be sent to Caucasus and Central Asia.

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