Around 50,000 Russiantourists are expected to grace Cyprus from March to November 2016, as the island is now seen as a safer option than Egypt since the fatal crash of a Russian airliner.

There is growing interest from investors for the Limassol port tenders, due to the new challenges of hydrocarbons, Transport Minister Marios Demetriades said recently.

Cyprus hosted over 40 specialist golf travel organisers from eight countries, in a collective effort between the four local golf courses and affiliated hotels and the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) to promote the island as a tourist golf destination.

The finance minister recently issued a decree for the recapitalisation of the Co-operative Central Bank (CCB), which provides for its gradual privatisation with the goal of listing the CCB on the Cyprus stock exchange in 2017.

The government is currently in the process of hiring consultants to help map out the privatisation of Larnaca port’s commercial operations, transport minister Marios Demetriades announced recently.

After two days of debate in parliament, the plenum recently passed the 2016 state budget.

The new foreign company legislation for the ‘deoffshorisation’ that was approved in November 2014 and came into effect from January 1 2015, has already had a positive impact on the business services sector, as well as the employment sector in general.

While the government managed to reduce fiscal imbalances and restore market access, it may still have some way to go before it achieves an investment-grade credit rating, the Central Bank of Cyprus said recently.

The government had collected €84.48 million from the immovable property tax (IPT) 2015 by December 3 2015, which accounts for some 82.25% of the total amount owed.

The upcoming visit to Nicosia of Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi will further prove that China and Cyprus are true friends and good partners, ambassador Liu Xinsheng said recently.