What the decision of Amazon Web Services means for Greece

The very important investment of Amazon Web Services was the subject of the meeting of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with company executives a few hours after the announcement that Greece is among the countries where Amazon Web Services will invest in the first expansion of Local Zone infrastructure, outside the United States.

The discussion was attended online from the US, by the Vice President of Amazon Web Services, responsible for Global Public Policy, Michael Punke, who congratulated the Prime Minister and the government and said he was impressed by the leaps that Greece has made in a very short time.

“The country is really becoming a hub for high technology investments”

“It’s an important day for Greece, an important day for Amazon. We are very happy to make these important announcements regarding your presence in Greece. I would like to point out one thing: that the country is changing rapidly. It is really becoming a hub for high-tech investments, especially in data centers, and it is very encouraging for us that very important global “players” choose Greece for a permanent presence”, the Prime Minister stressed in his introductory statement.

“I think it is another vote of confidence for the prospects of the Greek economy. As you know, we have started a very big effort to digitize the state. We have a policy for “cloud first” and we intend to establish Greece as a data center. The government is fully aligned to support this vision and I am very happy that you are responding to this and that you will significantly increase your presence in Greece “, added Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

“Before entering politics I worked in the field of investment, so I am very, very happy that with a little delay, what I thought could be possible in Greece in terms of technology and innovation, which contributes a significant percentage to our GDP is happening in practice. And of course, due to COVID many people choose to work from Greece. What is interesting is that, in a more fluid work environment, we make it much easier to issue visas for ‘digital nomads’ so you can work from anywhere,” he said.

What the investment is about

The decision of Amazon Web Services to select Greece for the installation of Local Zone, one of a total of 11 that it plans to create throughout Europe, reflects the great investment interest that the country is now attracting.

At the same time, it seals the position of Greece as a regional technology hub, where large companies with a global footprint make strategic investments in infrastructure that will support the fourth industrial revolution and the economy of tomorrow.

Local Zones reduce application latency. They offer computing power, digital storage, databases and other selected services through infrastructures that are installed very close to large urban, industrial and technological centers.

In this way, AWS Local Zones accelerate responses to the minimum millisecond level, effectively facilitating activities such as financial services, multimedia production, live video streaming, high-demand gaming, simulations, and enhanced environments. and virtual reality and machine learning.

The vice president of Amazon Web Services

The Vice President of Amazon Web Services, responsible for Global Public Policy, Michael Punke, stressed that the choice of Greece was facilitated by the care shown by the government throughout the preparatory process, but also by the change it has observed in the Greek economy of the past decade and Greece today. He also congratulated the Prime Minister for his leading role in the progress of Greece and in the efforts for digitization, stating that he was impressed by what the government has done in such a short period of time.

Introducing the investment, Mr. Punke explained that the Local Area Zone new infrastructure will allow a one-millisecond response, which is crucial for many industries, from financial services to healthcare and live streaming video.

“This is the result of the whole range of changes and policy initiatives that have been implemented in recent years. One of them, as the Prime Minister mentioned, is the policy that we developed to give priority to “cloud computing”, noted on his part the Minister of State and Digital Government, Kyriakos Pierrakakis.

Mr. Pierrakakis added that “approximately 25% of Greece’s financial portfolio from the Recovery Fund will be channeled to digital services. “Providing short-distance cloud services with a fast response is extremely important to make this policy a reality.”

“The message I want to send is that we are here to help in any case and to solve any problem related to an investment, in order to accelerate it, to improve its financial prospects,” said the Minister of Development during the meeting. and Investment Adonis Georgiadis. “This is the spirit that Mr. Mitsotakis has given, as Prime Minister, to our government.”