Greek Finance Ministry moving to port suburb to cut expenses

Greece's Ministry of Finance will move by autumn from the center of Athens to a Piraeus port suburb as part of efforts to further cut state expenses, Greek Deputy Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis announced on Monday.

From Syntagma square opposite to the parliament building the Finance Ministry will be transferred in three months time to the renovated building that used to be a warehouse of Keranis, a Greek tobacco company, at Agios Ioannis Rentis district, according to an e-mailed ministry statement.

After a tour at the six-storey building, Alexiadis said that the government intends to make more efficient use of state property and save taxpayer's money.

The Keranis building was purchased by the Greek state in 1998 to house Environment Protection ministry services, and since 2005 when renovation works ended, remained closed.

The 42,300-square-meter building can house some 2,300 employees and complies with the latest standards of energy conservation and bioclimatic architecture resulting in low energy costs, the minister added.

The new premises of Greece's Finance Ministry are easily accessible by public transport.

Mayors of nearby municipalities have welcomed the move, expecting that it will breathe life in the wider district.

"We are trying to revive a dead building. We hope that this will breathe new life and prospects into the area," Nikaia Mayor Yorgos Ioakimidis told Greek national news agency ANA-MPA. Endit