Culture Ministry raises obstacle to Cosco investment

A few days before Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras heads off to Beijing to take part in the Belt and Road Initiative Forum in search of investors, Chinese group Cosco is faced with a fresh obstacle in its plans to develop the Piraeus Port Authority (OLP) as the Ministry of Culture says it wants to acquire OLP buildings.

Specifically, the ministry's general Secretary, Maria Andreadaki-Vlazaki, has sent a letter to the Shipping Ministry asking it to revoke the concession for the Silo building in the port so it can house a museum of marine antiquities.

According to a law passed last year, the Silo building - which once served as a wheat storage structure - belongs to the set of buildings conceded by the state to OLP, which is now majority-owned by Cosco.

The letter was sent on April 13 - the same day the Culture Ministry called for three buildings to be certified as...