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Utah Companies Courted by World
Greek trade ambassador Elias Thanasas figures there must be Utah companies, energized by the rewards of participating in the 2002 Winter Games, that would like to become involved in preparations for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
BY MIKE GORRELL
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
So he was eager to travel from the Greek consulate in Los Angeles to Salt Lake City for Friday’s International Business Summit, organized by state business and economic development officials to lay groundwork for upcoming trade missions designed to capitalize on Utah’s Olympic notoriety.
"I hope some Utah companies would be interested in getting involved in our project," Thanasas said. "You have experience in hosting the Games. You know the spirit of the Games. "
Thanasas insisted that Utah entrepreneurs will find Greece a good place to do business, citing the availability of government grants, subsidies or loans, legislation that protects foreign capital investments and an annual economic growth rate of 3.6 percent over the past seven years.
A weeklong Utah Olympic Trade Mission departing March 9 for Athens and Turin, Italy, site of the 2006 Winter Games, will reach Greece at a most opportune time, Thana- sas added, since the Greek government is in charge of the European Union’s rotating leadership through June 30.
Trade emissaries from 13 countries — Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Sweden, and the United Kingdom — made similar presentations about business environments in their homelands.
The state International Business Development Office expected about 50 Utah businesspeople to participate in the briefings, but more than 200 signed up, forcing the session to be moved from the Governor’s Mansion to the downtown Wells Fargo Building, spokeswoman Tracie Cayford said.
"That tells us there’s a lot of interest in Utah for international trade," she said.
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