Piraeus Port Authority

Greece proposed a three-year cooperation plan to Beijing involving ports, ship building and repair, credit, supply chain and culture during Greek Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis?s recent visit to China, according to the Chinese government.

Privatizations, at least some, will reportedly proceed but in the form of long-term leasing schemes, with the prime candidates being a majority stake of the Piraeus Port Authority and the online horse-racking concession.

The port privatization is considered a "big-ticket" item, as it involves the country's largest such facility, while figures over the latter are sketchy, at best.

With the omens from the negotiations in Brussels being far from positive on Tuesday, the benchmark of the Greek stock market ended the month of March with losses of 11.93 percent, while banks declined by 24.69 percent. The banks index lost 41.53 percent in the first quarter of the year.

By Ilias Bellos

Boosted by last weekend?s statement by Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis from China that the government will go ahead with the sale of the majority stake in Piraeus Port Authority (OLP), Cosco will now be able to implement its plan for the creation of a ship repair unit on the island of Salamina.

A list of reforms submitted by the Greek government to the Brussels Group reportedly includes the sale of a majority stake in the Piraeus Port Authority as well as the sale of 14 regional airports, two major privatizations tenders that the new leftist government promised to overturn before it came to power.

Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis announced from Beijing on Friday that the privatization of the Piraeus Port Authority will come in a few weeks.

According to Dragasakis, the Chinese multination Cosco, considered amongst the favorites to assume a controlling share of the port, has tabled a competitive bid.

Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis continued his visit to China on Friday by holding talks with Vice Premier Ma Kai in Beijing, where both men pledged to strengthen ties between the two countries.

Carnival Cruise's Carnival Vista sea cruise vessel will use Greece's main Piraeus port as an arrival and departure port as of Spring 2016 for its Mediterranean Sea voyage.

At the same time as Greek PM Alexis Tsipras travels to Berlin on Monday for a closely watched meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a trio of the government's top ministers will be headed in the other direction, to China for official contacts in Beijing.

Mixed reactions in Europe to a Greek demand for an extension to its bailout framework submitted on Thursday resulted in increased volatility in the local stock market, but buyers kept the upper hand at the end of the day.