President announces projects for Troodos mountainous area worth over €30 million

President Nikos Christodoulides has announced more than twenty major projects and a package of political actions for the revitalisation of the Troodos mountainous area, at an estimated cost of more than €30 million.

The announcement was made on 22 October in the community of Amiantos, the first stop of a tour Christodoulides will be carrying out over the coming period in all the districts of free Cyprus.

According to a Presidency statement, in a meeting with officials of local authorities, representatives of institutions and organised associations of the mountainous countryside at the Cultural Centre in Kato Amiantos, President Christodoulides announced new projects and political actions in support of the mountainous areas, on the basis of the governance programme and in the framework of a wider central planning for all districts.

Among others, the President announced measures for the economic development and the promotion of entrepreneurship, in the context, as he said, of the effort to create conditions and employment opportunities in the area, including the adoption of 22 measures to simplify and speed up the process of examining applications for multiple developments, which from 1 July 2024, will be the responsibility of the newly established District Self-Government Organizations.

On rural development issues he said that through a targeted dialogue with the relevant Ministries, a series of simplifications is being promoted through the issuance or reissuance of special decrees simplifying licensing requirements.

In relation to tourism, the President said that last April, the competent Deputy Ministry launched a Grant Scheme for the revival of rural, mountainous, peripheral and remote areas, with a total budget of €4 million, aiming at enriching and upgrading the tourism product of the areas in question.

He added that a total amount of €1.6 million was distributed under the first call of the scheme to the local authorities belonging to the 14 clusters of the Troodos region, for tourism product enrichment and landscaping projects.

He also said that the Scheme for the Upgrade of Hotels and Tourist Accommodations in Rural, Mountainous and Remote Areas has been announced, with the aim of improving the competitiveness of tourism businesses in these areas, a scheme for which, he noted, a total of five tourism businesses from the Troodos region applied and which are expected to receive a total grant of more than €800 thousand.

He added that in parallel, the installation of a fibre optic network in the most remote rural villages has begun and is expected to be completed within 2025, for better access to digital and communication services.

In addition to the above, President Christodoulides announced a series of measures in the areas of health, education, the promotion of the primary sector and the improvement of the transport and transportation networks.

(Source: CNA)