The Abu Dhabi Chamber with new agreements signed in Athens, has opened two formal channels into the Greek economy, placing a question of institutional governance at the centre of a growing commercial relationship. The deals were concluded on the sidelines of the UAE-Greece Business Forum. Dr. Ali bin Harmal Al Dhaheri, First Vice Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, signed both on behalf of the emirate’s private sector.
Who the two partners answer to
Each Greek institution carries a different mandate, and the difference matters for the businesses that will use them. Enterprise Greece works under the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Its brief covers foreign direct investment, export promotion, and guidance for investors trying to read the local regulatory system. Dimitris Skalkos, its chairman, signed the memorandum of understanding. The second partner answers to its members rather than a ministry. The Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry represents more than 140,000 registered companies, and its president, Ioannis Bratakos, signed the cooperation agreement. One body holds state authority. The other holds the weight of a large private membership. Together they give Abu Dhabi firms two separate kinds of access, each with its own rules and its own reach.
Why the UAE-Greece investment partnership keeps deepening
The Abu Dhabi Chamber with new agreements, is building on trade and capital that were already moving. UAE-Greece non-oil trade reached about US$606 million in 2025. Three years earlier, the two governments announced the UAE-Greece Joint Investment Fund, a €4 billion framework meant to direct capital into the Greek economy. Emirati money has since spread across sectors. Masdar acquired TERNA ENERGY in a transaction that valued the company at roughly €3.2 billion. PureHealth paid €800 million for a 60 percent stake in Hellenic Healthcare Group.
Other commitments reached digital infrastructure and hospitality, widening what began as an energy-led relationship into something broader. Recent trade data points the same way, with Emirati exports to Greece rising sharply in 2025 and re-exports climbing alongside them.
How the Abu Dhabi Chamber with new agreements plans to help SMEs
Al Dhaheri framed the value of the deals around outcomes rather than signatures. He argued that partnerships should be judged by the opportunities they create and the markets they open, not by their number. The chamber, he said, wants to extend that access to more companies, with particular attention to small and medium-sized enterprises that carry strong potential abroad. His stated goal is to move those firms into European markets with reliable intelligence and direct lines to partners.
A governance point sits underneath the language. An SME rarely has the standing to reach a foreign ministry agency or a national chamber on its own. These agreements lend it that standing, and shift some of the risk of a first foreign step onto institutions built to carry it.
What each agreement commits the parties to do
The memorandum with Enterprise Greece sets a working exchange between the two sides. They will share information on trade and investment opportunities, priority sectors and the requirements for establishing a business in either market. The Greek agency will also make introductions to relevant authorities, investors and potential partners, and support visiting delegations.
Skalkos placed his emphasis on what comes after the ceremony. He described the next task as connecting Emirati investors with Greek opportunities while opening a route for Greek companies into Abu Dhabi and the wider region. For his agency, the priority is the work that follows a signing: matching partners and building ties that hold over time.
The cooperation agreement with the Athens Chamber runs along similar lines, though closer to the ground. It centres on direct business-to-business contact, the exchange of market intelligence, and support for bilateral meetings, delegations and joint events. It also sets a framework for helping SMEs expand abroad and for sharing expertise in innovation, digital transformation and capacity building.
Bratakos called the UAE a strategic economic partner for Greece and pointed to investment, trade and entrepreneurship as areas with room to grow. For Greek SMEs, he noted, access to foreign capital and partners is central to competing and to Greece’s move toward a more outward-looking economy.
The accountability question behind the deals
Institutional agreements of this kind succeed or fail on follow-through. A memorandum can gather dust, or it can become a working pipeline. Both sides used the signing to stress the second outcome, which places the burden on the institutions rather than the firms they serve. The Abu Dhabi Chamber with new agreements in hand, now carries responsibility for turning access into transactions, with the two Greek bodies holding the same duty on their side.
The arrangement fits a wider method in Abu Dhabi of building state-backed and member-backed connections that let private companies reach markets they could not enter alone. Enterprise Greece and the Athens Chamber bring the local knowledge and the introductions.
The chamber brings the firms and the capital. Whether the model works will be measured in deals closed and companies established, not in documents signed. For now, the agreements reset the terms of a relationship that has leaned on a handful of large deals, and point it toward a wider base of mid-sized businesses on both shores.
