German newspaper praises Ioannina: “The Greek Silicon Valley”

“When Philip Deutscher, a computer engineer at the German software company TeamViewer, first heard about Ioannina, he thought: It seems interesting, but where is it?” Thus begins the article of the Rheinische Post, presenting a city unknown to the German public: Ioannina, the “Silicon Valley of Greece” as the mayor of the city Moses Elisaf says, a characterization adopted by the Düsseldorf newspaper.

“Today, Deutscher is the head of the Greek TeamViewer based in Ioannina,” reports the Rheinische Post. “The subsidiary has grown rapidly. “We started at the end of 2019 with 18 partners,” says Deutscher. “It is now 41, we estimate to reach 50 this year, while the long-term plan envisages 150 partners.” TeamViewer from the city of Göttingen is not the only IT company that chose Greece as its headquarters to develop its activities. “Before the Swabians, the company P&I from Wiesbaden had already settled in Ioannina”.

What are the comparative advantages? “The combination of remarkable and still untapped human resources, the good local conditions and the support provided bypolitics is in favor of Greece. The choice of Ioannina is mainly due to the university of the city, which, with 20,000 students, belongs to the most recognized educational institutions in the country. Especially the School of Informatics, founded in 1993, has an excellent reputation “. But there is another fact that counts for Philip Deutscher: “The competition in the local labor market is not very intense, therefore we have many chances to hire, but also to keep the best we find in the region. In Ioannina, many partners are still new, but they quickly get into the spirit of the company and identify with TeamViewer.”

source: DW