(FT) -- China is eyeing investments valued at several billion euros in Greek shipping, logistics and airport projects to be discussed during the second visit to Athens in four weeks by a high-ranking Beijing official.
The news came as Moody's downgraded Greek debt on Monday night by four notches to junk. The debt is already rated junk by other agencies.
The Greek government sais on Monday night that Moody's downgrade did not reflect Greece's progress over the past months in tackling its problems.
"The latest figures for the Greek budget -- with the deficit for the first five months of the year down by 40 per cent compared to 2009 -- show that the programme that Greece has agreed on with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund is on track, a development recognized by all three institutions," it said in a statement.
"Furthermore, the decline in first quarter GDP in 2010 was smaller than projected for the full year in the memorandum of understanding".
A delegation led by Zhang Dejiang, a Chinese vice-premier, will seal a series of agreements ojn Tuesday with local companies, a Greek government official said.
"These concern maritime affairs, telecoms and a project to renovate a landmark tower building in Athens' port of Piraeus," the official said.
Deals for joint ventures, charter agreements and shipbuilding deals worth €500m ($615m) with Greek shipping companies will also be signed.
Greece is rushing to attract investment from countries with big sovereign wealth funds to help revive economic growth as it tackles an unprecedented fiscal crisis.
China's state shipping company Cosco already controls a container terminal at Piraeus under a €3.4bn long-term concession deal. Cosco is expected to make a joint bid later this year with Greece's state ports company to create a €150m-€200m logistics hub near Athens to distribute goods for China in the Balkans.
Mr Zhang's visit comes a few days after George Papandreou, Greek prime minister, flew to Libya for talks on energy and tourism projects.
Not all attempts to attract Chinese investment have come to fruition. This year, a deal for Chinese banks to buy €20bn of long-term bonds collapsed when Athens refused to sell a stake in National Bank of Greece, the country's biggest lender, as part of the agreement.
