The 10 winning pairs of the 2022 Stelios Bi-Communal Awards for Business Cooperation were announced on Thursday, by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, with each participant taking a €10,000 cash prize.
Participation in the Bicommunal Entrepreneurship Awards exceeded expectations, with 58 pairings of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots submitting business proposals.
Sir Stelios, founder and owner of easy family of Brands (www.easyHistory.info) and founder and president of the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation (https://steliosfoundation.com.cy/) offered the total amount of €200,000 euro for the 10 best business proposals.
The Award Ceremony and the announcement of the ten winning teams, took place online on Thursday, with Sir Stelios congratulating the winners via Zoom. The ceremony was attended by all 116 businessmen who submitted proposals, as well as representatives of the Media.
The aim of the awards is to encourage cooperation between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriot businessmen, with the goal of establishing lasting peace on the island. The bi-communal annual awards were introduced in 2009.
Congratulating the winners and all those who participated in the competition, Sir Stelios said: ‘’It is a great pleasure to see so many successful entrepreneurs putting aside their differences, created by politicians, to cooperate for the benefit of the economy of their common homeland, as well as for the consolidation of peace on the island.”
About half of this year’s winners had submitted proposals and won cash prizes in previous bi communal competitions, which was seen as particularly encouraging, as it demonstrated that cooperation between the two communities had a lasting character.
The “Stelios Bi-Communal Awards for Business Co-operation 2022”, is the 12th year the competition was held. Since its inception in 2009, € 3,990,000 have been given in prizes.
Winners
- Alexandros Philippides – Hasan Siber
- Andreas Andreou – Emre Serdar
- Charalambos Leonidou – Hasan Ekingen
- Christos Marangos – Mine Yucel
- Elena Christou – Kadir Yorgancioglou
- Ioannis Papadikos – Huseyin Yavuzkurt
- Kyriakos Platrites – Cafer Potinci
- Panagiotis Nicolaou – Baris Mustafa Toprakci
- Steven Stavrou – Burak Doluay
- Yioula Papakyriakou – Mariam Gokcebag
