House Speaker Demetriou: A Cyprus solution will create economic momentum

Our main goal is the resolution of the Cyprus issue and the return to the Turkish occupied territories, while at the same time overturning the faits accomplis that Ankara perpetuates and attempts daily in the enclosed area of Famagusta, said Annita Demetriou, President of the House of Representatives.

Addressing an official dinner to mark the 70 years of the Famagusta Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Ayia Napa pm 1 June, Demetriou said that nothing can replace the momentum that the solution will bring to the economy at large.

She said that Cyprus, despite its small size, as a modern, European state in the crossroads of three continents, aspires and has the capability to become an international business hub in the field of services, tourism, maritime, education, and energy, attracting credible large-scale investments.

She also said that "providing incentives and developing appropriate quality infrastructure through a sound and balanced sustainability and resilience plan, while maximising the Recovery and Resilience Plan, will contribute to the region's emancipation from seasonality and broaden prospects for attracting foreign strategic investments, simultaneously creating new job opportunities that the region so desperately needs."

However, she noted that nothing "can replace the momentum that the solution of our national issue and the long-awaited return to our occupied cities and villages will bring to the economy at large. This remains our primary goal and concern, with the simultaneous overturning of the faits accomplis that Ankara perpetuates and attempts daily in the enclosed area of Famagusta."

In his address, Energy, Commerce and Industry Minister George Papanastasiou said that at a time when Cypriot businesses are called upon to modernise to become sustainable and competitive, the contribution of the Famagusta Chamber of Commerce and Industry, through its actions and initiatives for the benefit of its members and the province as a whole, is deemed particularly significant.

The main objective of the Ministry of Energy, said Papanastasiou, "is always to create a new development model in collaboration with members of our business community, primarily based on innovation and entrepreneurship."

Papanastasiou referred to business missions to foreign countries with the aim of promoting Cyprus as an international business center and revealed that "business missions to priority countries such as the USA, the UK, Austria, India, and others are planned for 2023," while between the 20th and 23rd of June, he will lead a business mission to Kazakhstan.

(Source: CNA)