Invest Cyprus promotes country at Delphi Economic Forum

National investment promotion agency Invest Cyprus on Wednesday released a statement summarising its activities at the Delphi Economic Forum, where a number of actions and initiatives helped to showcase investment opportunities in Cyprus to the diverse crowd of business people in attendance.

The Delphi Economic Forum is a nonprofit, member-driven organisation, that seeks to deliver and promote innovative ideas for sustainable and competitive growth for Europe and the wider Eastern Mediterranean region.

As part of the forum, where global giants such as Microsoft, Google and others participated, Invest Cyprus held an event to promote and promote Cyprus, in the presence of the President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides.

According to the announcement, the event gave the Cypriot delegation “the opportunity to showcase Cyprus as an investment destination, allowing them to make a series of contacts with important personalities of the international business community who participated in the Delphi Economic Forum”.

In his greeting at the Invest Cyprus event, President Christodoulides emphasised the comparative advantages of the Cypriot economy, underlining the fact that despite the difficult international economic environment, the Cypriot economy’s growth rate continues to have an upward trend.

At the same time, he outlined Cyprus’ long-term strategic plan, particularly in terms of its economy and model, until 2035. The plan, he said, aims at further strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship on the island, as well as helping to facilitate increased investments in a number of sectors, such as tourism, shipping and energy.

What is more, Invest Cyprus board member Yangos Hadjiyannis made numerous contacts and meetings with potential investors, explaining the comparative advantages of Cyprus and the ways in which Invest Cyprus can assist interested investors.

Hadjiyannis also participated in a panel discussion on the challenge of attracting quality foreign direct investments.

Kyriacos Sambatakis, Country Managing Director at Accenture Greece, Iossif Kiouroukoglou, Managing Director and Head of EMEA Transportation Infrastructure at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Stelios Theodosiou, Managing Director at H.I.G Capital and Andreas Kallis, VP, Business Development at Olayan Financing Company, also took part.

The panel discussion was moderated by Tasos Zachos, the Editor in Chief at Fortune Greece, one of the country’s leading business publications.

During the panel discussion, Hadjiyannis had the chance to address a range of distinguished business executives and elaborated on the reasons why Cyprus has enjoyed such a significant rise in regard to its efforts of being established as an international business centre.

Meanwhile, the event’s organisers explained that “countries, institutions and policy-makers across the globe find themselves constantly challenged by the consequences of these changes”, noting that  “comprehending and responding to this ongoing and dynamic process requires careful pacing of reforms and policy consistency”.

“The Delphi Economic Forum engages political, economic, business, academic, and other thought leaders in an effort to address emerging challenges, influence the national and regional agendas and promote sustainable and socially responsible growth policies for Europe, the wider Eastern Mediterranean and Greece,” they added.

Cyprus as a technology and innovation hub

Meanwhile, at a separate event, Invest Cyprus recently also highlighted the island’s strong prospects for attracting investments aimed at the technology and innovation sector.

It should be noted that the coordinator of the event was Invest Cyprus general manager Marios Tannousis.

Speaking at a conference titled ‘Cyprus: The new Global Tech and Innovation Hub Summit’, Invest Cyprus president Evgenios Evgeniou explained that the island’s vision of evolving into a technology and innovation hub is becoming a reality.

Evgeniou presented Cyprus’ vision of becoming a destination for technology companies in the context of the national strategy ‘Vision 2035’, which aims to build a digital economy.

Presenting the various initiatives undertaken by the government to attract international technology companies, Evgeniou emphasised that “these companies do not come to Cyprus only because of tax incentives, but also because of the availability of talent, which is being augmented by the country’s numerous universities, as well as the lifestyle, that combines a pleasant climate and a safe environment for the workers’ families”.

At the same time, Evgeniou explained that “despite current inflationary pressures, Cyprus remains an excellent business destination compared to other countries”.

Subsequently, he spoke about the work that Invest Cyprus has carried out as an organisation, saying that Cyprus ranks third in the world in terms of attracting foreign direct investment, following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Finally, he expressed the hope that the participants at the conference share the agency’s vision of transforming Cyprus into a technology island, encouraging them to be a part of this objective.