Referring to the Cyprus economy, Anastasiades stressed that the government “has invested substantial time and effort in consolidating and reforming our economy, since the Memorandum of Understanding with the Troika has been signed.”

“There is no doubt that Cyprus is making steady progress in fulfilling the necessary requirements of its economic adjustment programme. The fact that the international investment activity in the country is maintained at high levels, proves the foreign entrepreneur’s trust towards investing in Cyprus. To this end, I do believe that the prospects for the island look extremely promising,” he noted.

Yet, he added, “we are aware of the difficulties, viewing them as a challenge for the future that is to be overcome by constantly being alert and concentrating on implementing our plan for further economic improvement.”

He stressed that “throughout this past one and a half year period, we have managed to be on the right track back to recovery,” and referred to “Cyprus’ credit outlook upgrading by the international credit agencies, our country’s quick return to international markets, the significant 13% increase in companies’ registration we have recorded for the period between June and August of 2014 and, finally, the significant improvement of our public finances.”

He noted that the recent Russian investment activity reflects the on going and steady business relationship among our countries, which also includes important tourism exchanges. “In fact, Russia is Cyprus’ second largest tourist market, with the numbers of Russian citizens visiting our island constantly increasing over the past years – the total tourist arrivals from Russia until August 2014 have rose to almost 500 thousand visitors, with an impressive increase of 17% compared to the same period for 2013,” Anastasiades noted.

He assured that “in our restructuring efforts, we are working hard to enhance further our country’s established reputation as a centre of excellence for international investment and business activities, with opportunities for growth present in most economic sectors, including hydrocarbons exploration and exploitation, shipping, tourism, large-scale development projects, education, health and renewable energy.”

Anastasiades said that the government is greatly facilitating investments though the application of measures that involve, among others, the reduction of the time needed for issuing permits, the licensing and encouragement of the prompt completion of projects, the licensing of joint ventures and the granting of residence permits and citizenship to foreign investors.

Russian Ambassador to Cyprus Stanislav Osadchiy said that “instability in this region caused deterioration of the relations between Russia and the European Union, resulting in mutual sanctions, which undermined our long-existing economic ties.”

“We highly appreciate attempts of the Republic of Cyprus, as one of the EU members, to restrain Brussels from making this war of sanctions even worse. Our country is certainly taking all necessary diplomatic efforts to assist in bringing peace to Ukraine and we believe that political dialogue between Russia and EU at the present time is vital,” he noted.

As regards the Cyprus economy he referred to the contribution of international institutions to its stabilization by rendering its financial assistance to the Republic of Cyprus, noting that “we have taken some steps as well, among them the decision of the Russian Government to restructure previously granted credit in favour of our Cypriot friends.”

He also said, “Russians continue supporting Cyprus economy. The number of tourists from our country has been steadily growing over the last years and now we share the first place with the holidaymakers from Great Britain.”

He went on to say that many ordinary Russians willingly purchase property here. Our businessmen actively invest in Cyprus, participating in different projects, especially in the construction sphere, and that “more and more Russian companies open up representative offices on the island. Last example is the decision of one of our largest banks ‘Zenith’ to set up here its branch.”

“We welcome these positive developments, but we certainly cannot forget about some hindrances standing in the way of expansion of the full-scale multilevel cooperation. These obstacles mostly originate from the present international situation caused by the events in Ukraine, Osadchiy said.

Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry Secretary General Marios Tsiakkis said that Cyprus remains an attractive regional business centre offering all the advantages that foreign companies are looking for in a reliable jurisdiction for contacting their international activities.

“We are extremely pleased that most Russian Companies are still using Cyprus as their base of operations.  And we do believe this is a right decision, to their own interests as well,” he noted.

He noted that Cyprus offers attractive investment prospects and opportunities in the areas of energy, tourism, real estate, health and education and urged Russian businessmen to further examine these opportunities.

He said that during the last years Russian and other business people showed an increased interest in buying real estate in Cyprus especially in the coastal towns.

“With the aim of offering an additional guarantee to these buyers we are in the final stages of introducing a `Property Certificate` that will provide once and for all, the trust needed by any buyer, local or foreigner, regarding their investment in real estate,” he noted.

President of the Cyprus-Russia Business Evgenios Evgeniou said that the resilience ofthe business relationship between Russia and Cyprus as well as the resilience of the position of Cyprus as a business hub has been one of the reasons for the better than expected performance of the Cyprus economy over the last year.

He noted that this year’s conference is organized in the shadow of the tensions in the Russian - EU relationship over Ukraine and the backdrop of developments on tax, regulatory and legal matters in Europe and Russia, which are part of today’s agenda.

“Clearly there are uncertainties and challenges ahead. Allow me to remain optimistic that we will be able to deal effectively with the challenges and adapt so as to navigate through the uncertainties,” Evgeniou noted.

Source: InCyprus