On 20 June 2014, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his Greek counterpart Antonis Samaras jointly inspected Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT) in Athens of Greece., accompanied by Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi, Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission Xu Shaoshi, Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng and Chinese Ambassador to Greece, Zou Xiao Li, the Greek Shipping Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, Minister of Development Mr. Dendias and other Chinese and Greek officials.

Chairman of COSCO Group Ma Zehua introduced PCT to the premiers and their entourage, including terminal operations, latest achievements, future development, its surrounding maritime networks and railway link to Central and Eastern Europe which has the advantage of reducing transportation time by between seven to eleven days compared to traditional transportation. COSCO Group’s active participation in the project of privatization of Piraeus Port Authority was also briefed. During the inspection tour, the two premiers launched a cargo train to witness the success of multi-modal transportation development. A train was loaded with 23 40-feet containers heading for Hungary after the premiers pressed the launch button.

Finally, the Chinese and Greek Premier addressed a warm speech respectively, highly praised the achievements of PCT, a subsidiary of COSCO Group, and expressed high hopes in expansion of cooperation in Piraeus port and development of Greece-China relations.