28.07.2022
Eugenios Evgeniou, chairman of the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency, commonly referred to as Invest Cyprus, said on Wednesday that the country’s efforts to attract foreign companies have helped increase the resilience of the economy and contribute to a more sustainable economic model.
“The Cypriot economy has faced serious challenges as a result of a number of unpredictable external factors such as the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the rapid rise in inflation,” said Evgeny.
“While these conditions have affected the Cypriot economy, a combination of government policies, the agility of the private sector and attracting foreign investment initially limited the recession and has now shifted the focus to achieving sustainable growth,” he added.
Eugene noted that the European Commission recently published its forecast for Cyprus, which predicts GDP growth of 3.2% in 2022.
While this figure reflects a decline from previous estimates, it remains above the projected EU average for the current year.
However, as Finance Minister Konstantinos Petrides and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde have previously mentioned, uncertainty and instability continue to haunt the global economy.
“In these unprecedented conditions, we must intensify our efforts to attract new businesses and investments to Cyprus, which will create new highly specialized jobs and added value for our economy,” said Evgeny.
“For these efforts to be successful, all stakeholders, public and private, must work together,” he added, noting that Invest Cyprus’ business and investment policies are fully in line with the government’s own strategy.
According to Eugeniou, the agency’s policy has three main goals. The first involves the involvement of highly specialized international firms, along with their staff, mainly in the field of technology.
The second goal involves supporting the processes of introducing foreign investments into priority sectors of the economy. These include green and digital transition.
The ultimate goal is to maintain the competitiveness of Cyprus as a center for international financial services, especially in terms of investment funds.
“In recent years, Cyprus has implemented a new strategy to attract foreign companies and talent. Invest Cyprus has adopted this since 2019 and focuses mainly on high-tech, shipping, pharmaceutical, innovation and research companies,” said Eugene.
“So far, the efforts have been successful, as thanks to coordinated actions together with the private sector, we as a country have managed to create a new and promising technology sector,” he added.
In addition, Eugene noted that the sector has the potential for further growth in the coming years, so much so that it will become a self-sustaining ecosystem and help Cyprus become the preferred location for international technology firms and start-ups.
At the same time, the chairman of Invest Cyprus said that this is far from being so simple, given the competition from other European countries.
“At Invest Cyprus, we are confident that the international business sectors will continue to grow in the coming years, increasing specialization, creating new jobs, diversifying education and labor, and increasing investment in new development projects,” said Evgeny.
“We must remain focused on our goal, pursuing sound development and reform policies to realize the 2035 Vision for the Cypriot economy and society, which is encapsulated in a simple yet extremely meaningful proposition: to make Cyprus a better place to live, work and do business.” he added.
Eugeniou acknowledged that further enhancing the competitiveness and ability of Cyprus to attract foreign investment depended on close attention to international developments, constant reviews and updates of its FDI system, and targeted incentives.
In addition, it also entails the implementation of a number of necessary reforms, including those agreed under the Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan.
“We recognize that there is significant scope for further improvement of our investment proposition,” Evgeny said.
“However, we are confident that with the support and cooperation of the relevant ministries and working together with the private sector, the collective effort to attract even more businesses and investment to Cyprus will succeed,” he concluded.
