Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-06-29

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

CONTENTS

[01] Shipping minister says government will examine COSCO's objections

[02] COSCO slams shipping ministry's 'obvious attempt' to change deal with OLP

[01] Shipping minister says government will examine COSCO's objections

Dritsas responded to questions from opposition MPs who asked to know how the government would respond to the letter sent by COSCO, in which it criticized the shipping ministry for unilaterally changing elements of the signed deal.

"The government will look into it, will examine the objections, might reflect on possible improvements, will tackle all issues and we will see how to resolve the issue. This is the context of this issue. Nothing more, nothing less," Dritsas told parliamentarians.

[02] COSCO slams shipping ministry's 'obvious attempt' to change deal with OLP

Parliament is debating a draft bill on the deal through a fast-track procedure that will allow it to be approved ahead of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' visit to China this weekend.

"With the submission of the draft bill ratifying the new concession agreement between the Greek government and OLP, we were confronted with a very unpleasant surprise, as the content of the specific bill constitutes a complete reversal of what our company COSCO HK agreed with HRADF, as part of the acquisition of a majority stake in OLP," the General Manager of COSCO Hellas, Angelos Karakostas, said in his letter to HRADF and the parliamentary committee.

Karakostas said the text of the draft law is a "completely different text" than the ratifying bill signed with HRADF, which is an "integral part" of the deal with the agency. He also said the text submitted is also "exact opposite" from "both the main conditions of the deal and the given facts" on which COSCO's bid was made.

"The modifications of the agreed draft law are an obvious attempt of the shipping ministry to completely substitute OLP's administration, to render inactive almost all of the provisions of the concession deal and amend by law the achieved agreement," the letter continues.

Karakostas then requests that the ministry restores the original text in a way that it reflects "fully and completely" what was agreed between Greece and the company.

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