A welcome reception was held for the new Trade Commissioner of Greece in Australia, Chrysa Prokopaki, and the Consul General of Greece in Sydney, Ioannis Mallikourtis, at the View by Sydney in Walsh Bay on Tuesday night.
The event, organised by Business Sydney, was attended by over 100 invited political, business, community and faith leaders including Archbishop Makarios of Australia; the NSW Minister for Transport, Veterans and Western Sydney, David Elliott MP; Member for Canterbury, Sophie Cotsis MP; the President of the Greek Orthodox Community of NSW (GOCNSW), Harry Danalis; and the Executive Director of Business Sydney, Paul Nicolaou; among many others.
After guests mingled and networked amongst themselves, Mr Nicolaou kicked off official proceedings as emcee and welcomed a number of people to the podium to speak. This included Archbishop Makarios, Minister Elliott, the Consul General Mr Mallikourtis, the Trade Commissioner Ms Prokopaki, and Mr Danalis.
In their speeches, both the Consul General and Trade Commissioner thanked everyone for their welcome to Australia.
From there, a Question & Answer segment was held between Mr Mallikourtis and Ms Prokopaki with The Greek Herald‘s Digital Editor, Andriana Simos, as moderator.
Miss Simos asked the diplomats a series of questions around bilateral trade relations between Greece and Australia, the Double Taxation Agreement, the opening of an office of the Greek National Tourism Organisation in Melbourne, the Greek diaspora vote, and the digitisation of consular services in Sydney.
During the Q&A, Mr Mallikourtis made a number of announcements around the digitisation of the Consulate in Sydney. This included: (1) credit and debit card payments would be accepted at the Consulate in Sydney for the first time; and (2) the introduction of a system of electronic appointments.
At the conclusion of the Q&A, Mr Nicolaou invited guests to continue their networking and take photos with the Consul General and Trade Commissioner.
