With the company of President Melachrinos, Ambassador Zou visited ELTA's distribution and operation center at the airport hub. He was invited to enter the country code into the electronic system, thus having two parcels from Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, put on the conveyer belt, which would continue to be carried to other European countries.

In the following meeting, Ambassador Zou offered congratulations on the smooth inauguration of the operation center and spoke highly of the entrepreneurship of Greek business people. He said that although Greece is still faced with difficulties, it also has development opportunities and huge potential. The China-Europe express delivery business was an outcome of President Melachrinos' visit to China last year. Greece has become the first EU country that has opened business of this kind. It is a compelling case. Agreements on the Piraeus Port project are going to be signed very soon, which will attract more Chinese businesses to come to invest in Greece, as well as more Chinese tourists. It will not only facilitate bilateral cooperation in shipping and port but also lead to enhanced cooperation in aviation, railway, and mail services, thus making bilateral exchanges even closer.  Greece enjoys great geographical advantages and has the conditions to become a transportation hub of land, sea and air in the East Mediterranean. China is ready to expand cooperation with Greece to jointly explore the markets of the Middle East, North Africa, Southeast Europe and Central Europe to realize win-win results, common development, and tangible benefit for peoples of the two countries.  

President Melachrinos thanked Ambassador Zou and the Chinese Embassy for support and assistance for the opening of express delivery business by ELTA. He was glad that China has taken Greece as an important link of the "Maritime Silk Road". The ELTA was ready to carry out cooperation in more areas for greater success.

Xunhua News Agency, CCTV, China-Greece Times, and Kathimerini had on-spot coverage of the event.

According to sources, during ELTA delegation's visit to China last year, it signed cooperation agreement with businesses of Zhejiang Province. Based on the agreement, parcels from Zhejiang that are aimed at EU countries will be sent to Greece first, distributed by the ELTA system and then to the final destinations. This can reduce the mail cost by a large margin and improve efficiency. The project adopts advanced data collection system. It is presently on trial run. Capacity can be increased to 100,000 parcels per batch. Business volume will be gradually increased.