Over the last few years, Cyprus has established itself as an international business hub, which is ideal for headquartering, start-ups, family offices and for attracting foreign investments. Cyprus has all the ingredients to build on its success as a regional business centre because of its modern infrastructure, strong availability of multilingual & high quality professionals across various competencies and wide use of English, and the access it provides for raising capital from EU and other Western investors. 

Cyprus is also emerging as a technology headquartering hub with many international groups and start-ups choosing Cyprus, taking advantage of the favourable business environment, as well as the relaxed immigration rules for IT personnel. Recent success stories include the listing of one technology company on Nasdaq within a period of five years from the date of establishment in Cyprus.

Since the beginning of 2022, Cyprus has issued, to date, around 9.000 Work Permits to highly skilled employees who relocated with their families, marking a sharp increase to prior years, mainly coming from technology groups (including from Western/US origin). Moreover, many groups are choosing Cyprus as their ideal IP holding and/or financing jurisdiction.

Beyond the area of technology, the funds industry has seen major growth, aided by the recent establishment of an operational centre in Limassol by MUFG. There was also the landmark set up of the International Maritime Industries (IMI) fund- where Saudi Aramco is a key shareholder. Due to its strategic location in the Mediterranean, Cyprus is also being considered to be used as a cable route for the sub-sea cable project between Saudi Arabia and Greece. 

Learn more about Cyprus as a business hub here.

Article by:
Chrysillios Pelekanos, Head of Indirect Tax Advisory, Head of East Market & Deputy COO

Rami Amireh, Director, International Private Clients, PwC Cyprus