Pavlos Michailidis is a Greek entrepreneur who imports solar panels and water-heating equipment from China, through a deal made possible by the  Enterprise Europe Network. Despite no previous experience with a Chinese partner, Michailidis is now Greece’s exclusive distributor for the Jiaxing Jinyi Solar Technology Co.

The Greek entrepreneur first came across a reference to Jiaxing Jinyi while surfing the web for potential suppliers from China. Although he was intrigued by the product range and prices, he had no way of verifying details about Jiaxing’s size and financial health, let alone the status of its activities.

Fortunately, he found the Enterprise Europe Network, based at the Federation of Industries of Northern Greece in Thessaloniki. Working with close to 600 partner organisations in 50 countries, the Network’s 3 000 experts can easily help companies do background checks on potential partners abroad, and help them overcome language and cultural divides.

“When we get a question like this from a client, our first action is to contact the appropriate Network partner organisation in the corresponding country,” says Monika Nagy, Information Officer at Enterprise Europe Network-Hellas.  In this case, that meant contacting the Network branch based in Changsa, at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Hunan Sub-Council.

“As always, the response from our colleagues was immediate and extremely helpful,” says Nagy, adding, “This is a unique strength of our worldwide Network.”

After giving Michailidis the information he sought, Network experts in China and Greece continued to work with the companies, mainly by translating e-mails and relaying messages on behalf of their respective clients. Eventually, the firms inked an accord allowing Michailidis to sell Jiaxing Jinyi’s products in Greece – without ever having met in person.

“This is an important step for my business,” says Michailidis. “The Enterprise Europe Network is a very useful support centre that I would recommend to any SME with international ambitions.”