A portfolio of approved private investments has been formed in Greece by about €6.6 billion. The plans include new factories, data centers, pharmaceuticals, food processing, aluminum and logistics.
Briefly about the main thing
- over the past two years, under the Development Law, approved 928 investment projects worth €3.1 billion;
- even more €3.5 billion accounts for approved strategic investments;
- Together, these projects are associated with the creation of approximately 21,000 jobs;
- Investors include TITAN, Metlen, General Mills, Chubb, Goldair, Yiotis and Thrace Plastics;
- a significant part of the projects is outside Athens;
- Moreover, €6.6 billion is the volume of approved projects, and not the money already invested in the economy.
€6.6 billion – where did this amount come from?
The new investment wave consists of two major parts.
The first is projects approved over the past two years within the framework of the Greek Development Law (Αναπτυξιακός Νόμος). In total we are talking about 928 projects with a total budget of about €3.1 billion. The government support provided for them reaches approximately €1.5 billion, and the declared number of new jobs is about 15,000.
Second part – strategic investments. Over the same period, more than €3.5 billion worth of projects were approved, which are estimated to provide around 3,000 high-performance jobs.
Together with other investment portfolio projects, authorities and business publications estimate the total volume to be approximately €6.6 billionand potential employment is approximately 21,000 people.
It is important to understand: this does not mean that €6.6 billion has already entered the economy or that 21,000 people have already gained employment. We’re talking about approved investment plans and projected jobs. The actual outcome will depend on whether the projects are fully implemented.
What exactly are they going to build?
The last two regime competitions are especially indicative “Large Investment”. These include 22 projects with a total value of more than €513 million.
| Company/project | Region | Investments |
|---|---|---|
| TITAN Cement – modernization of production | Boeotia | €43.85 million |
| Metlen – expansion of aluminum production | Boeotia | €34.2 million |
| Team Fortress – Data Center | Ioannina | €33.8 million |
| Stavros Nendos – new bakery | Thessaloniki | €34.95 million |
| Nexus Data – data center | Kastoria | €26.67 million |
| General Mills Hellas – production expansion | Boeotia | €23.58 million |
| Goldair Cargo – a new logistics complex | Western Attica | €15.72 million |
TITAN has the largest project of the first round: at the Kamari plant it is planned to implement a system that will use waste heat for power generation.
Metlen is expanding its aluminum production capacity, and General Mills Hellas is diversifying production at its existing facility.
Data centers are leaving Athens
An interesting trend is the emergence of large digital objects far from the capital.
In Kastoria, Nexus Data plans a data center costing €26.67 million. Estimated government support is about €20 million, and the creation of 67 jobs is announced.
In Ioannina, Team Fortress is implementing a project on €33.8 million with 90 new jobs announced.
In the second round, another project appeared in Kastoria – Tier III data center of the White Aquila Energy and Infrastructure company worth about €20 million.
Thus, the digital infrastructure is gradually beginning to expand beyond the traditional Athens-Thessaloniki corridor.
Thessaloniki: production plus technology
Thessaloniki receives several projects at once.
Stavros Nendos is building a bakery production plant worth almost €35 million.
US insurance group Chubb, through Chubb Business Services EMEA, is expanding its existing development and IT services center in the city. The project volume is €15.53 million, and the stated increase in employment is 180 peoplewhich is the largest figure among the 13 projects in the first round.
In the second round, ZEO Artopoiia plans to invest more €25 million to expand the production of bakery and confectionery products.
Pharmaceuticals, products and packaging
New investments also cover traditional sectors of the Greek economy.
In Etoloakarnania company Yiotis will invest €15.22 million in the production of homogenized food products with high nutritional value.
In Crete, in Rethymno, Mediterranean Life is planning an expansion of its ready meals production at a cost of approximately €15.52 million.
In Larisa, Viokosmos Medical and Scientific Equipment announced the creation of a new pharmaceutical company for approximately €17.46 million.
In Boeotia, KXA Paper Packaging, part of Thrace Plastics, intends to build a new paper packaging production facility costing approximately €25.08 million.
The state pays part of the investment
An important aspect of the program is that a significant part of the projects receive government support.
For example, the first round of “Major Investments” includes 13 projects worth €320.16 million. The estimated volume of government assistance is approx. €141.88 million.
In the second round, nine projects have a total budget of approximately €193.8 million, and the estimated assistance is approximately €91.7 million.
The support mechanism may include grants, tax breaks and other investment incentives provided for by law.
Official information about the current strategic investment mechanism is published Greek Ministry of Development And Enterprise Greece.
But Greece still has an investment gap
Despite the impressive absolute amounts, Greece’s investment problem is far from solved.
In 2025, total investment was approx. 16.9% of GDP versus about 11% in 2019.
However, the lag in business investment is especially noticeable. Their volume was estimated at approximately 8.48% of Greece’s GDP with the EU average being around 12.69%.
The gap is 4.21 percentage points. At current prices, eliminating it would require the country to require an additional €10 billion in business investment annually.
The problem becomes especially relevant as the European Union expires. Recovery and Resilience Facility: The economy must gradually move away from large-scale European financing to a greater role for private capital.
The main question is: how many projects will actually be built?
This is where the fundamental difference lies between the beautiful figure of €6.6 billion and the real effect on the economy.
Inclusion of the project in the Development Law or Strategic Investment Regime does not mean that the plant has already been built, the equipment has been purchased, and the declared jobs have appeared.
After approval, permitting procedures, financing, construction, equipment purchase, and only then production start begin.
Therefore, the real indicator of the success of the program will not be the amount of approved investment plans, but the proportion of projects that will actually be put into operation in the coming years.
Editorial commentary from the Athens News. The most interesting thing about these statistics is not even the number €6.6 billion itself, but the change in the structure of investments. A significant proportion of new projects are in the industrial, processing, technology, data centre, pharmaceutical and logistics sectors and are being implemented outside of Athens. For Greece, which has been dependent on tourism, real estate and consumption for decades, turning these plans into actually working enterprises will be much more important than the number of billions in decisions about their approval.
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