The Foreign Ministry’s General Secretariat for Openness has dedicated itself to securing further support for the country’s hospitals and its health sector in general. A total of 14 flights have already arrived or are expected soon, carrying respirators, masks, protective medical clothing, etc., from foreign countries. The Secretary General for Openness, Grigoris Dimitriadis – who is assisting the effort to secure necessary supplies through economic diplomacy – told the Athens-Macedonia News Agency (AMNA) in a telephone interview that additional flights have already been scheduled for the coming days. Thus, in spite of high global demand, adequate medical supplies for the country’s National Health System will have been secured within the week.
From the moment it became clear that Covid-19 would inevitably spread to Greece, increasing medical-supply needs, the Foreign Ministry’s General Secretariat for Openness went on “high alert,” Mr. Dimitriadis told AMNA, and the priority goal was to meet the country’s needs in this sector, through close interministerial cooperation. He explained that a long chain was immediately created between the Prime Minister’s office, the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its network abroad, and the private sector –individuals, companies and foundations – in full cooperation and coordination to procure medical supplies. In addition to Mr. Dimitriadis, and under the direct supervision of Health Minister Vassilis Kikilias, the core team consists of Marios Themistokleos, head of the National Central Authority for Health Procurement; Giorgos Mylonakis, Secretary General of the Hellenic Parliament; Giannis Kotsiopoulos, Secretary General for Health Services; and Dimitris Pantazis, head of the Pharmaceutical Research and Technology company (IFET).
“Our goal is to meet the needs of the National Health System, and so far it looks like we are doing quite well,” he stressed, noting that he is “staying at the office,” as this is a round-the-clock effort due to time differences and the need to coordinate with various countries around the world, since there is limited stock and high demand from many countries. “Up until last week, things were very difficult, but now we have secured significant quantities and supplies have started to arrive by plane,” he said, adding that “seven flights carrying medical equipment have already arrived, and we are expecting three more directly, creating a very good stock of supplies, while four additional flights have already been scheduled so that we can build on the adequate stock we will have created.
Flights and supplies that have arrived so far:
1. Air China - donation from China: 21/03/2020
Approximately 10 tons of medical supplies, including 50,000 N95 masks, 1 million surgical masks, 10,000 protective medical suits, 10,000 pairs of medical goggles, 20,000 pairs of medical gloves and 10,000 medical shoe covers.
2. Etihad Airlines – donation from UAE: 26/03/2020
Approximately 11 tons of medical supplies, including special protective suits, medical gloves, medical shoe covers and antiseptics.
3. Aegean Airlines, 29.03.2020
Onassis Foundation donation of 1.7 million surgical masks.
Also carrying 28 boxes of special protective medical suits for Cyprus.
4. Chartered Golden Cargo flight, 31.03.2020
Onassis Foundation donation: 8,336,000 surgical masks
Lasdkaridis donation: FPP3 and FPP2 masks
Donation from China National Building Material: face guards
5. Aegean Airlines, 1.04.2020
Onassis Foundation donation of 3 million surgical masks
The Onassis Foundation has donated a total of 13 million surgical masks
6. Chartered Golden Cargo (Antonov) flight, 1.04.2020
IFET order: surgical masks, FPP2 masks, face guards, TYVEK suits and boot covers
Prokopiou donation: TYVEK suits and waterproof suits
7. Chartered Golden Cargo flight, 2.04.2020
Prokopiou donation: 2.5 million gloves
Flights still to come: The Public Power Corporation (DEH) is expecting chartered flights carrying medical supplies it has purchased, including medical masks, gloves, suits, etc., with the flights expected to arrive on Sunday, 5 April, and Tuesday, 7 April. Also being scheduled for the coming week is an Aegean flight from Shanghai and another three from Tianjin.
Additional flights carrying the necessary medical supplies are already being planned and will continue through April.
The Secretary General for Openness highlighted that our embassies in certain countries – including, among others, the United Arab Emirates, China, India, Mexico, Sweden, Serbia and the U.S. – provided key assistance in achieving the country’s goals for procuring sufficient quantities of vital medical supplies. With regard to the first two countries in particular, he highlighted that, in this difficult state of affairs, the systematic work done in recent months on the level of economic diplomacy – to attract investments and promote exports – proved invaluable, as it built trust that was capitalized on in this situation and will benefit the Greek economy in the future.
“The UAE arranged to procure large quantities of medical supplies. They donated about 11 tons of medical supplies to us. These supplies arrived in our country on a special Etihad Airways flight and included, among other things, special protective medical suits, medical gloves, medical shoe covers and antiseptics. China, which also donated a significant quantity of supplies, also helped us a great deal subsequently. And this support we saw from China shows how good the relations are between our two governments. The Chinese Ambassador to Athens helped to give us an advantage in securing vital supplies from reliable sources in this battle,” Mr. Dimitriadis said.
And he added: In Shanghai we’ve kept a space for our supplies – through Golden Cargo, which is helping us – where we collect the supplies we or our donors have found in China – so that we can transport all of it to Greece at a later time. This process has to be managed carefully because the reduction in flights has made it very difficult to find transport. You might find supplies but not know how to get them to your country.” At this point he noted the major assistance that has come from Aegean Airlines, which provides its aircraft and its own fuel or fuel donated by Hellenic Petroleum, assisting in the enormous effort the country is making.
The Secretary General for Openness explained that the cargo brought in is determined by the needs and priorities set by the Ministry of Health at a given time. At first, respirators were the main priority. In a situation that disrupted the whole medical supply system, there was support from SYN-ENOSIS, the Greek shipowners, the Mytilinaios Group and Hellenic Petroleum, who all responded immediately to the need to pay up front for the respirators the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had found. “Because this is the hard part. Orders for supplies have to be prepaid. Through their invaluable help, we acquired the respirators. If we had waited to pay for them through public-sector procedures, we would have lost them; they would have been purchased by another country. We’re talking about millions of euros. This equipment is very expensive,” he emphasised.
At this point, Mr. Dimitriadis made special mention of the invaluable assistance and donations of private individuals, in addition to those from the Greek shipowners, the Mytilinaios Group, the Onassis Foundation, Aegean Airlines, Golden Cargo, Desmos, the Theodorou and Gianna Angelopoulos family, and many others, who have the flexibility to make purchases much faster than the State, enabling the country to respond to the situation immediately.
Asked about the procedure for coordinating actions, he told AMNA that the Health Ministry forwards its needs and the general specifications for procurement of the necessary medical supplies to the General Secretariat for Openness. The General Secretariat moves quickly to locate and secure the supplies through our network of embassies and consulates throughout the world. The General Secretariat then confirms the quantities and specifications with the Health Ministry and proceeds to make the purchase. This is followed by the final stage, transport, assisted by flights that are chartered by the state or donors, or provided by Aegean Airlines.
“From the moment we got to the front lines, using what we had built through economic diplomacy, we accessed markets wherever we could, through our network of diplomats, using political and economic diplomacy, so that we could find out what each country was doing and what we had to do in order to be effective. In this context, we have helped other, smaller countries, such as Latvia, telling them where they could get supplies when we found large quantities of available medical supplies.”
“One of our important jobs,” Mr. Dimitriadis continued, “is to check and ensure the reliability of suppliers. And to make sure we have a back-up plan just in case. This is why we have activated alternative plans. This is our planning.” In this context, he referred to the talks that are under way with Mexico, a country that manufactured the relevant medical supplies before the coronavirus crisis and supplied the U.S. Also being explored is the potential for procuring supplies from Singapore and Korea, so that there are lots of alternative solutions.
Concluding, the Secretary General for Openness emphasised that “very good work is being done. We’ve accomplished a lot. We are staying at the office and doing our very best to get all this done,” noting that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kostas Fragogiannis and he are building a more long-term post-crisis openness strategy, through reform of the Foreign Ministry’s economic diplomacy and reorganization of Enterprise Greece. Regarding the current situation, he expressed his conviction that our country will manage things successfully: “for three main reasons: First, because the Prime Minister made the right decision to adopt the stay-at-home measure early on; second, because we have highly trained doctors, scientists and nursing personnel; and third, thanks to the cohesion of Greek society, which has reacted very positively to the government’s measures.”
April 3, 2020