IN CURRENT market conditions, characterised by illiquid banks, an impecunious state, a rapidly shrinking economy and zero business confidence, foreign investment appears the only hope for Cyprus. As funds for investment are not available locally they must be found from abroad. It is the only way that much-needed cash would be injected into our stagnant economy, creating real, as opposed to state-sponsored, jobs and some business opportunities.

The opening of casinos, which was included in President Anastasiades’ election programme, would certainly give a boost to the economy, creating jobs and attracting more visitors to the island as well as providing funds for the state. But it may take a while for offers to be made and evaluated, licences to be issued and operations to commence. In the meantime the government needs to formulate a strategy for attracting investment, offering incentives and proposing projects that could be undertaken.

It would be very difficult to attract investors when our economy is being served by a dysfunctional banking system, subject to a strict capital controls, but the ground-work could be prepared and ways of exempting foreign investors from these controls, should be given serious consideration. Without preferential treatment, with regard to the movement of capital, no foreign firm would be willing to make a big investment. 

The government could pay lip service to the need to attract foreign investment, but it cannot realise this objective without offering strong guarantees that capital controls would not apply to interested companies. While this seems easier said than done, it is an imperative to find a way to eliminate the disincentive of controls - which might be in place for another year as far as we know - for potential investors if we are to have a chance of attracting some.

On Monday President Anastasiades met a representative of the Hong Kong investors, who bought the Venus Rock Golf Resort, and gave his full support to the project that would include two golf courses, a five-star hotel, commercial and leisure centres and luxury homes. The deal was good news for the country, sending a message that there are investors who have confidence in the economy. As for complaints that the Resort was bought on the cheap, €80m below its December 2012 valuation of €370m, these are meaningless. 

A competitive price is what makes an investment attractive to a foreign company. We should bear this in mind if we want to encourage foreign investment, because the days of charging inflated prices for everything we sold to foreigners, belong to the past. Now, we have no choice but to sell on the cheap.  

UNIONS ARE furious over the decision of Engomi Mayor Zacharias Kyriacou to cut the working days of municipal employees at the “overstaffed” local authority. 

Kyriacou said yesterday that as a result of cash flow problems, the municipality would reduce the working hours of all staff, including those of municipal councillors and his own, for a six-month period.

The unions responded, saying this was unfair and called on the labour ministry’s mediation service to intervene. They do not rule out strike measures further down the road. 

Speaking to state broadcaster CyBC yesterday, Kyriacou explained that from July 1, 2013, until December 31 of the same year, the Engomi municipality in the capital would implement a new policy to reduce the working hours of staff and tackle its dwindling funds and liquidity issues.

Kyriacou argued that the aim was to save jobs, and not have to lay off people, acknowledging that the local authority was already overstaffed. 

The measure will see administrative staff work one day less each month, while municipal labourers will be forced to take two days off per month.  

“It is a measure in combination with a series of other measures that we consider must be implemented in our municipality, so we don’t reach the tragic situation of losing jobs. And we have discussed this issue with the unions repeatedly,” he said. 

“And in our effort to save jobs, not throw people out with redundancies, we want all staff to help in the coming months, so the municipality can properly manage its budget for 2013.”

He noted that each worker was making a “contribution” to secure their job, adding that the figure saved was on average of gross earnings around €100 a month per staff member. 

“Engomi municipality is overstaffed when compared with other municipalities. For example, local authorities of a similar size and capacity to Engomi might have 80 employees. When I took over here, Engomi municipality had 139 employees. You can appreciate how big the difference is,” said Kyriacou 

The mayor said the large number of staff was hired under different circumstances. “They got jobs, built their lives around them, we don’t want to lay people off.”

SEK unionist Andreas Elia yesterday criticised Kyriacou’s “unprecedented” action. 

“What’s unprecedented is the correlation between the payment of wages and the municipality’s revenue.”

He argued that the Cypriot wider public sector operates on a principle of uniformity, where employees are afforded equal treatment throughout the wider sector. 

“This practice and uniformity must be protected with great care. We have examples in other countries where there were great inconsistencies in the terms of employment, even from one ministry to the other, and I’m referring to Greece, which created huge problems in implementing certain measures and achieving the effectiveness needed,” said Elia.

“Fortunately, we have basic terms of employment which are uniform. This decision of the Engomi municipality promotes and puts on the table a new order of things. We are not dogmatically against taking certain decisions, but this is not the time to be putting this on the table,” he added.

The SEK unionist argued that since this was a “small” problem of six-month liquidity shortages, the local authority should work in coordination with the state and other municipalities to find a general solution. 

“The union movement has been shouting for months about the need to restructure local authorities through intertwining, increasing productivity and effectiveness and if after, we find there is overstaffing we will be able to deal with that and find ways to reduce personnel,” he said.

Elia added that it was wrong for each of the 30 municipalities in the free areas and nine occupied municipalities to tackle their problems in different ways and change the uniform and basic terms of employment.

PEO union’s Antonis Neophytou argued that the wider public sector has already been made to pay for the economic crisis through repeated cuts in 2011 and 2012. 

Municipalities could not unilaterally cut wages and benefits beyond what public sector workers have already contributed to the crisis, he said. 

“It is a fact that local authorities face economic problems that are different in each municipality and this is mainly because of the different size of state grants given to each,” he said. 

Neophytou accused Kyriacou of being on the personnel board when staff was being hired at the Engomi municipality, “so he cannot use the excuse that when he took over the place was overstaffed”. 

Unions representing municipal workers met yesterday afternoon where they decided to seek the mediation of the labour ministry. 

They also plan to meet with the mayor and interior minister to discuss the issue. In the meantime, they asked the mayor to postpone his plans. 

Elia told the Cyprus Mail yesterday the unions will follow normal procedures. “We have a month,” he said, refusing to rule out strike action should all other options fail.

Engomi Mayor Zacharias Kyriacou says his municipality was overstaffed

The economy will contract by more than 8.7 per cent this year, according to the finance ministry, with growth expected from 2015.

 The final rate depends on tackling the challenges in the banking sector effectively, the recovery of the international economy, and full implementation of the structural measures included in the island’s bailout agreement, the ministry’s strategic framework on fiscal policy 2014-2016 said.

The jobless rate is expected to reach 15.5 per cent -- compared with 11.8 per cent last year – and continue its climb to 16.9 per cent in 2014.

It is expected to start falling in 2015 although rates will remain high – 14.6 per cent and 13.7 per cent in 2016 – the ministry said.

“The prospects of the Cypriot economy are expected to improve in the midterm,” the ministry said, after the restructuring and recapitalisation of the banking sector and removal of capital controls.

“In combination with the prospects in the energy sector, our economy is expected to recover and record positive growth rates from 2015 onwards,” the ministry said.

The government expects the rate of contraction this year to exceed 8.7 per cent – in 2014 the economy is expected to contract by 3.9 per cent.

According to the three-year framework, government spending in 2014 will fall by almost 11 per cent, with further cuts in 2015 and 2016 – 1.4 per cent and 5.0 per cent respectively.

The finance ministry has placed spending ceilings on all ministries and departments, which will have to prepare their budgets for the next three years within those limits.

“Any diversion from the ceilings jeopardises the achievement of the fiscal objectives,” the ministry said.

The government aims to put an end to excessive deficits in 2016 and achieve primary surpluses in a bid to cut public debt and free resources for development.

Archive photo of people queuing outside the unemployment office in Larnaca

Parliament will look into the former president’s solidarity fund, but Demetris Christofias will not have to appear before the Watchdog Committee, House President Yiannakis Omirou said on Thursday.

Omirou said the majority of parties decided that Chistofias will not be summoned before the committee to explain how the fund worked.

Green party MP Giorgos Perdikis disagreed with the decision.

Recent reports said that through the fund, the former president handed out around €522,000 – mostly in cheques worth €1,000 each – “to poor fellow humans” just before the last presidential elections.

The cabinet had set up the fund on April 23, 2008, also chipping in the first €10,000.

Businessman Nicos Shacolas contributed €330,000, the Russian Commercial Bank gave €100,000, and Nicolas Treppidis an additional €100,000.

An anonymous individual paid €2,000 into the fund, Kimonas Developments Ltd, also gave €2,000 and Hariton Stamatiou, €7,985.

Cyprus residents’ trips abroad dropped 19 per cent year-on-year in April, the statistical service said on Thursday.

The service said 84,688 residents travelled overseas in April compared with 104,493 in the same month last year.

It is the fourth consecutive drop this year.

March saw a 6.0 per cent drop, while trips abroad fell by 17.5 per cent in February.

January recorded a 22.4 per cent drop, although the figure was based on estimates, the service said.

In December 2012, Cyprus residents’ travels rose slightly by 0.6 per cent.

The Criminal Court trying the 2011 Mari naval base blast that killed 13 people and incapacitated the island’s biggest power station will issue its verdict on July 9, it was announced on Thursday.

Six people, including two former ministers face charges in connection with the July 11 munitions explosion that killed seven sailors and six firemen.

The announcement was made by presiding judge Tefkros Economou after the two sides finished their closing arguments.

Former ministers of defence and foreign affairs Costas Papacostas and Marcos Kyprianou have been charged with manslaughter and causing death through a negligent act for their involvement in the events leading up to the explosion at the Evangelos Florakis base.

Former National Guard deputy commander Savvas Argyrou, fire service chief Andreas Nicolaou, deputy chief Charalambos Charalambous, and Andreas Loizides, the commander of the disaster response squad EMAK also face the same charges.

The munitions had been seized from the Monchegorsk, a Syria-bound Cyprus-flagged ship that sailed from Iran.
They were confiscated in February 2009 after it was determined they were in breach of United Nations Security Council resolutions on Iran.

They had been stored in 98 containers that were left exposed to the elements until the day they exploded, also crippling the Vasilikos power station, which was right next door.

President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu  were meeting on Thursday night for dinner at the UNFICYP Chief of Mission’s residence in the UN controlled-buffer zone in Nicosia. .

The dinner, a social event, began at 8.30pm. Apart from the two leaders and their wives, the dinner will was attended by UN Special Representative in Cyprus Lisa Buttenheim and her husband and UN SG’s Special Advisor for Cyprus Alexander Downer and his spouse.

Downer said earlier there would be an interpreter at the dinner for Eroglu “because he can speak some English, but he doesn’t speak a great deal of English”.

This will be the first encounter between President Anastasiades and Eroglu, since Anastasiades was elected in February.

By Maria Gregoriou

A RESEARCH centre is asking for the public’s help in locating jellyfish in Cyprus’ coastal waters, which have been growing in population during recent years in the Mediterranean.

The Jellywatch research programme falls under the auspices of the University of Cyprus’ (UCY) oceanography centre that monitors jellyfish populations in Cyprus.

“We ask the public to send a photo of jellyfish, if available, when cited and also to tell us where it was located. This will help us gain more knowledge about the kinds of jellyfish in our local waters and also expand our scientific knowledge about the ecology of jellyfish,” said George Fyttis, a research scientist with the UCY’s oceanography centre.

“When we know more, then we can decide how to better deal with the problems created by the increasing population of jellyfish,” Fyttis added.

An increased number of jellyfish translates to more fish or other organisms such as zooplankton being eaten, leaving less food for smaller fish. Jellyfish also prey on these smaller fish and so reduce the population of those fish.

“Jellyfish also cause problems to fishermen as they get tangled in nets and may break them,” Fyttis said. The most problematic factor is how certain species of jellyfish affect the tourism industry, as they sting,” Fyttis said.

Another serious problem is that jellyfish clog-up tubes of plants that remove salt and other minerals from the sea and from power stations. An example of such destruction happened in the summer of 2011 in Israel when jellyfish blocked the underwater tubes of the Orot Rabin power station. The station was closed for five days while one tonne of jellyfish per hour were removed from the pipes.

The increase in population is caused by higher temperatures in the ocean and by overfishing. Several species breed in warm waters from spring until autumn and overfishing has decreased jellyfish predators such as, tuna.

Jellywatch is a programme organised by the International Commission for the Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean (CIESM), an organisation consisting of 22 countries, of which ten are involved in Jellywatch. The programme was initially implemented in 2008 on a pilot basis which later spread across the Mediterranean to identify and monitor jellyfish. Cyprus has been participating since 2011. Jellywatch recorded the existence of the jellyfish species Cassiopea, Carybdea, Chrysaora, Rhopilema, Pelagia noctiluca and Aurelia aurita species in Cyprus in 2012. Some of these jellyfish may sting but none of them will cause serious bodily harm.

“There are no serious problems with jellyfish so far in Cyprus. The only sighting of a bloom of jellyfish was on 21 April 2012 when around 100 jellyfish were seen in the Protaras areas,” Fyttis said.

He added no sighting have been recorded yet this year.

The centre asks members of the public who see any of the species of jellyfish shown on the poster, take a photo and send it to jellywatch@ucy.ac.cy along with the observer’s name and telephone number, where it was seen, a rough number of jellyfish seen, a rough estimation of the distance between the jellyfish and if the observation was made during fishing, diving, swimming, walking on the shore or any other activity.

Jellyfish have been in the ocean for about 540 million years, before the existence of dinosaurs. They can survive in cold and warm ocean water and even freshwater.

By Jack Kim

North Korea blamed the South on Thursday for scuttling fresh dialogue that aimed to ease tensions between the rival Koreas, saying Seoul deliberately torpedoed reconciliation talks planned for this week.

The latest outburst indicates Pyongyang may seek a return to confrontation rather than dialogue, some observers said.

Earlier this year, North Korea threatened nuclear and missile strikes against South Korea and the United States after it was hit with U.N. sanctions for its February nuclear weapons test.

This week’s aborted talks had been intended to reopen a closed joint industrial zone with the South in what would have been a confidence-building measure between two countries that remain officially at war.

The talks were canceled when the two Koreas disagreed over the rank of the officials to head the delegations that were to meet in Seoul.

“The problem … is not a simple issue related to the level of the head of the delegation to the talks but a manifestation of its sinister intention to make the talks between authorities abortive,” the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said in a statement carried by the KCNA news agency.

Seoul had wanted senior ruling Workers’ Party official Kim Yang-gon, a close advisor to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, to attend the meeting. Pyongyang said that was unheard of in protocol terms as the official was too senior to meet with Seoul’s Unification Minister who was heading the South’s delegation.

Capitalist and democratic South Korea, one of the world’s richest countries, and the impoverished North, now led by the third generation of a “socialist” ruling family, both claim to be the sole legitimate rulers of the entire Korean peninsula.

Korea was divided after the Second World War and the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a permanent peace treaty, leaving the two countries technically at war.

“The war of nerves means it does not look like there will be an easy breakthrough that will lead to dialogue any time soon,” said Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

Singling out a specific person to be the North’s chief delegate may have touched a nerve in the status-conscious North, Yang said.

North Korea appeared to have hunkered down on Wednesday after the talks collapsed. It stopped answering a phone line it re-established on Friday that had been severed in April.

Experts say the North often alternates from threats of military action to negotiations in a bid to extract aid. Its long term aim is to win diplomatic recognition from the United States and to be recognized as a nuclear weapons state.

The puny size of its economy, and its limited diplomatic clout means the North has few options to achieve recognition other than being viewed as a threat to regional security through its nuclear weapons and long range missile programs.

Jang Jin-sung, a former North Korean official who defected and now runs a website called New Focus International, described his old job at this time of the year as “farming” South Korea for aid after a period of heightened tension.

“Traditionally, North Korea begins by creating a tense atmosphere and presenting a hard line,” he wrote. It then follows up with demands for aid, he said.

This week’s talks had been aimed at reopening an industrial zone the North closed earlier this year amid the threats of war. The Kaesong zone generated around $90 million a year in wages for the more than 50,000 North Koreans who worked there.

North Korea’s one major diplomatic ally, China, has urged Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program and return to talks.

By Peter Stevenson

DRAFT dodgers could be denied a driving licence, a gun licence and a job in the government, if new proposals to combat the phenomenon go ahead, deputies heard yesterday.

Defence Minister, Fotis Fotiou, who was speaking after a meeting of the House Defence Committee, said yesterday that those who have already avoided conscription would be called in to be re-evaluated to see if they were now fit to join the army, which is mandatory for two years.

The vast majority of the exemptions from the army are on psychological grounds and over the past decade it has become easier to avoid conscription in this manner resulting in some 20 per of potential new recruits avoiding the draft.

The previous government had also made some tentative moves to clamp down on draft dodging.

Fotiou said there had been a decrease in the number of draft dodgers but said he felt that more work needed to be done to combat the problem.

He said draft dodging was a social phenomenon which adversely affected the combat readiness of Cyprus’ armed forces and that the proposed measures could help cut the avoidance rate.

“We now have access to the police archives for registered gun owners and we are close to having access to the road traffic department archive to see who has a driving licence so it can be cross-checked with the names of those who have avoided the draft,” Fotiou said.

“We are also speaking with the University of Cyprus to develop programmes, including excursions and general education on relevant subject matter to keep conscripts busy during hours when they do not have army work. We will try to implement a long-term strategy to prevent young Cypriots from avoiding serving in the National Guard.”

Chairman of the House defence committee, Giorgos Varnavas said after the meeting that draft dodging was not a new phenomenon and that his committee had dealt with the issue on many occasions.

He said the committee’s aim was not to punish those trying to avoid conscription but to avoid it from happening all together and that is why the possibility of passing a law which would prevent draft dodgers from getting driving and gun licences as well as working in the government was discussed.

“There appears to be a European directive that would inform the head of the road transport department whether someone applying for a driving licence had been exempt from the army on psychological grounds and demand he be assessed by a medical council,” Varnavas said.

He added that if the council of doctors gives the all-clear then that person would be recalled to serve the remainder of his or her conscription.

Member of the Cyprus Youth Board, Yiannis Panayiotou said that all parties needed to coordinate to face the problem of draft-dodging.

Panayiotou said draft-dodging had increased with the loosening of family ties, a crisis of values and a decrease in young people’s endurance.

Fotiou said there were two types of draft dodger; those who pretend to have problems and those who want to serve the NG but do not have the mental strength to do so.

The defence ministry has asked for help from the ministries of health and labour, parliament, youth organisations and parents associations to help counteract the phenomenon.

By Poly Pantelides

PARLIAMENT’S legal affairs committee yesterday discussed two bills aimed at protecting home owners and smaller businesses from repossessions as laid out in the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Cyprus has signed with its lenders as part of a €10 billion bailout.

The bills, submitted by EDEK, aim to stop banks from seizing primary residences as collateral for non-performing loans of up to €300,000, as well as protecting property belonging small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs), as long as the business is considered viable on “objective criteria,” EDEK MP Nicos Nicolaides said.

Another bill aims to protect loans’ guarantors or debtors from bankruptcy, under certain conditions.

“We cannot bear it to think that the MoU terms will result in families geting evicted from their homes. We cannot conceive of it to see homeless people in Cyprus,” Nicolaides said.

“We will start seeing SMEs shut down because they cannot afford to pay their loans because of the financial crisis, for which they are not responsible,” he added.

Nicolaides said that the content of the bills was still under discussion and was bound to change so they could stand up to legal scrutiny. But he said the question was whether the state had the backbone to stand against “destructive” MoU terms.

As part of the MoU, authorities are expected to expedite and streamline procedures for non-performing loans. This is in part to protect banks’ capital buffers but also to minimise “the incentives for strategic defaults by borrowers,” such as property developers who would default on debts while an overheating market pushed up the value of their property. This enabled banks to sell the collateral property that was worth much more by the time procedures were completed. Banks would regain their funds, while developers would get the remainder at no extra trouble.

Instead, the MoU states that banks must classify loans as non-performing if payments are in arrears for more than 90 days, and seize assets up to one and a half years “from the initiation of legal or administrative proceedings”. In the case of primary residences the time-span may be extended to two and a half years. All this needs to be implemented by the end of 2014, and voted by parliament by mid-2014.

PRESIDENT Anastasiades’ decision to send a letter to the heads of the IMF, ECB and the European Commission, appealing to them to change the terms of the MoU in order to save the Bank of Cyprus was the correct one. It was a desperate move, but the bank is in a desperate situation and it is increasingly looking like it would not be able to survive the lifting of the capital controls which the government believes are stifling business activity.

As the president noted in his letter, the capital controls might ensure against the bankruptcy of the Bank of Cyprus in the short term, but in the medium- to long-term they would cause the collapse of the banking system, given the systemic importance of the bank to the economy. If the bailout programme was to succeed, it was essential that the Bank of Cyprus was strong and trustworthy, he wrote and nobody could disagree with him.

It was a well-argued letter, pointing out how the Eurogroup decision, which burdened the bank with Laiki’s €9bn ELA debt, while depriving it of Laiki’s assets in Greece that were being used as collateral for part of the amount, had all but eliminated its chances of survival in an open market. He even suggested ways of freeing the bank of the ELA handicap, even though it is questionable how practical these were.

While the president made all the right points, the letter should never have been made public. In fact, it should have been marked ‘classified’, instead of it being distributed, quite foolishly, to all the party leaders, one of whom was certain to leak it to the media, forcing the government to publicly confirm its existence. The acting spokesman and finance minister declined to reveal its contents, which were subsequently posted on several web-sites.

Now, the whole world knows that if the troika declines to make any of the proposed changes to the terms of the MoU, sought by Anastasiades, the banking sector would collapse, even if the capital controls were kept in place indefinitely, in order to protect the Bank of Cyprus from a bank run. This is not the view of some alarmist, financial journalist seeking attention, but of the President of the Republic, who has a responsibility to reassure the public rather than say things that could spark a bank run.

Furthermore, sending a letter to the members of the troika is not enough. Direct personal contact should also be made and the government’s arguments supported by an analysis of figures and the impact on a failing economy (it might also have been a good idea not to have threatened to sue the president of the ECB whose help we are seeking). It is truly demoralising to see such a critically important issue handled so haphazardly.

By Stefanos Evripidou

A FOREIGN investor facing a host of bureaucratic obstacles to opening an eco-friendly sustainable resort in Latchi village, made worse by a “hostile” public service, has found a government willing to listen.

Ajay Goyal told the Cyprus Mail earlier this month that his €5 million sustainable tourism project – the Zening Resorts in Latchi village in the Polis Chrysochous area – was being consistently thwarted by a raid on bank accounts, capital controls, frequent government inspections on site, fines, lawsuits, bad press, and “bullying”.

Following a detailed report by the Sunday Mail on June 2, Goyal was invited to the Presidential Palace on Monday this week, where he met Undersecretary to the President, Constantinos Petrides.

According to Goyal, the meeting was “very interesting and constructive”, with the government showing a real interest in hearing “a firsthand account of what it’s really like for a foreign investor on the frontlines”, who wants to make a “real and sustainable” investment in the country, as opposed to simply buying real estate and acquiring permanent residency.

He said the government was willing to go all the way to support foreign investors who abide by the country’s rules and law.

“I explained to them that an investor coming into a new country is like a kid going to kindergarten for the first time. If he does not act within the rules on the first day, you cannot slap the kid. You have to first teach the child the rules. You can’t start sending 20 government departments, whose job it is to come and make sure we are doing everything according to rules that only they know.”

Even his Cypriot managers were not aware of all the rules that a project is meant to abide by, argued Goyal, using as an example the case of the yellow slip that all workers were meant to have, in addition, to actually paying their social insurance.

“It’s a question of bureaucracy going berserk. You can’t implement obscure rules on first inspection. Or at least, come and say, guys you’re starting a business, these are the rules.”

The investor proposed the government provide a channel of communication between business and bureaucracy “so that before slapping wrist, and pushing people around, you can tell them what is right and what is wrong… because right now businesses are being treated very antagonistically”.

He called for a ‘sherpa’ office which could communicate directly with investors on all their obligations and help them get through the labyrinth of bureaucratic procedures, as well as act as a go-between for businesses and government.

“They thought it was a very interesting proposal,” he said.

This Sherpa could also help protect investors from “vested interests and unscrupulous operators”, he said, highlighting his own experience in Latchi.
“The government has an obligation to investigate allegations but also to protect investors from bullying,” he said.

Finally, Goyal called on the government to do its best to attract real FDI.

“Until now, someone who comes shopping for real estate is considered a foreign investor. Certainly buying a house contributes to the economy but that is not FDI. An FDI support mechanism is simply absent in Cyprus, it does not exist, and it needs to be created.

“And they need to act fast, they don’t have time to wait, because the situation is dire,” he added, referring to the complete lack of liquidity in the market and absence of any credit being offered by credit institutions to businesses.

“If things continue like this, in four, five months, businesses will have run out of stock,” he said.
Zening was meant to open in May for the 2013 tourist season but the project was pushed back after the Eurogroup decision last March, which saw investors lose half a million euros in lost revenue as a result of the delay.

They expect to lose a further €2m from the haircut on deposits in Bank of Cyprus and the former Laiki Bank.

Goyal originally attracted €15m to invest in the area in two phases: the first €5m earmarked for Zening Resorts, an all-year round retreat hiring over 80 people, mostly Cypriots; while the remaining €10m was meant to be invested horizontally in organic farming and renewable energy.

Following the troika’s decision to raid the bank deposits of the island’s two most systemic banks, investors have scrapped phase two, deciding instead to pull their money out as soon as possible.

Over €3m has already been spent on Zening, and Goyal remains confident that Cyprus has what it takes to offer a different kind of experience to eco-conscience European and Russian tourists, as opposed to the “artificial world of all-inclusive tourism”.

However, the Indian investor said he was spending so much time and effort countering allegations of supposed illegalities and irregularities made by the Paphos contractors’ association, headed by Antonis Petrides, that he even considered not opening at all this summer.

Petrides was heard numerous times on local radio claiming that the tourism project was riddled with illegalities, allegedly employing dozens of illegal and undocumented workers, and operating without a building permit.

Meanwhile, the semi-government Council for Registration and Control of Contractors (CRCC) initiated proceedings against Zening for allegedly hiring a non-licensed contractor to do renovation work.

The CRCC tried to secure an interim injunction to stop renovation work at Zening (formerly the Elia holiday village) but failed, once it transpired that the hired contractor does have a licence, something which should have been obvious to the semi-government body since they are the ones responsible for registering contractors. The CRCC has since asked for an adjournment, to prepare a new charge against Zening.

The investor said since the allegations surfaced by Petrides, he has become the target of regular inspections from the police, labour ministry, and other government departments.
He questioned whether the government really wanted to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in Cyprus or scare it away.

Since publication of the Mail article, Zening was again subject to another “big labour ministry inspection” last week where no violations of any kind were found. The official opening is now set for July 4.

A father,54, and his 33-year-old son caused trouble in the Larnaca hospital emergency room on Thursday because doctors were unable to provide treatment for drunkenness.

Police said the two showed up drunk in the emergency room in the early morning hours.

The father demanded treatment – in the form of an injection — for his son so that he could recover and go to work without any problems.

Angered by the doctor’s explanation that such a treatment did not exist, the two reportedly threatened him and a female police officer on duty at the hospital.

Fearing arrest, they fled the scene but were located and arrested a few hours later.

Eight flights will be affected on Thursday because of an air traffic controller strike in Greece.

Greek controllers will stop working between 3pm and 5pm in protest for the Greek government’s decision to close state broadcaster ERT.

The flights — four arrivals and four departures to and from Larnaca airport — have been re-scheduled.

They concern flights to and from Athens and Thessaloniki

Authorities urged passengers to contact their airlines to avoid any inconvenience.

Andis Hadjicostis’ parents Costis (L) and Toulla following the announcement of the verdict

By Elias Hazou

The Nicosia Criminal Court on Thursday delivered its verdict in the trial for the slaying of Sigma boss Andis Hadjicostis, finding all four defendants guilty as charged.

The decision — contained in a 380-page verdict — by the bench was unanimous.

The four defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment.

They are: former TV presenter Elena Skordelli, her brother Tasos Krasopoulis, Andreas Gregoriou and Grigoris Xenofontos. They have been found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and of the premeditated murder of Hadjicostis.

Hadjicostis was shot dead with a shotgun on January 11, 2010, while leaving his home in the Engomi neighborhood of Nicosia. He was 41 years old.

Earlier in the day, the court deemed that Fanos Hadjigeorgiou – the man who admitted to driving the getaway bike following the gunning down of media boss Hadjicostis – was a credible witness.

The prosecution’s case hinged on the testimony of Fanos Hadjigeorgiou, who had turned state’s witness and was placed in a witness protection programme.

According to the court’s verdict, Skordelli and her brother – both shareholders in Sigma television – masterminded the assassination of Hadjicostis, whom they saw as impeding their plans to gain a controlling interest in the station.

The motive, the court said, was revenge as well as the sidelining of Hadjicostis.
Skordelli and her brother began hatching plans to kill the Sigma boss as far back as October 2009.

The judges also accepted that a meeting of the conspirators took place at Krasopoulis’ house in December 2009.

The court said moreover that authorities’ failure to locate the murder weapon could not be taken to mean that no crime was committed.

The sawn-off shotgun, used to shoot Hadjicostis twice, was never recovered.

The court rejected the argument that the defendants’ constitutional rights were violated due to the delay in the start of the trial. It also dismissed claims that media coverage of the case may have prejudiced the trial.

Tempers flared inside the jam-packed courtroom on the announcement of the verdict. Relatives of the defendants began shouting and jostling with police officers, and a number of people were evacuated from a back door.

Skordelli, 42, a former TV presenter, hails from the village of Pera Orinis, as does her brother Krasopoulis, 37, a civil servant. Gregoriou, 33, is a butcher from Tseri, and Xenofontos, 29, a plumber from Nicosia.

By Gwynne Dyer

AS I WRITE this Nelson Mandela is still with us. He may even still be living at the end of this year. But this is his fourth hospitalisation in six months, and the prognosis for 94-year-old men with persistent lung infections is not good. How will South Africa do without him?

Wrong question, actually. In practice, South Africa has been doing without him for more than a decade already—but psychologically, it is just now getting to grips with the reality that he will soon be gone entirely.

For all its many faults and failures, post-apartheid South Africa is a miracle that few expected to happen. Although Mandela retired from the presidency in 1999, 14 years later he is still seen as the man who made the magic work, and somehow the guarantor that it will go on working. If only in some vague and formless way, a great many people fear that his death will remove that safety net.

Just in the past two weeks, however, the tone of the discussion has begun to change. On hearing that Nelson Mandela had been admitted to hospital yet again, Andrew Mlangeni, one of his dearest friends and once a fellow-prisoner on Robben Island, said simply: “It’s time to let him go. The family must release him, so that God may have his own way with him…Once the family releases him, the people of South Africa will follow.”

That one comment opened the floodgates, for it had a strong resonance in traditional African culture, which holds that a very sick person cannot die until his family “releases” him. They have to give him “permission” to die, by reassuring him that his loved ones will be fine when he’s gone. So South Africans must now accept that they can get along without Nelson Mandela, and then he will be free to go.

It’s not that everybody really believes in this tradition, but it frames the conversation in more positive and less distressing way. People can argue about whether or not South Africa is doing as well as it should, but they can at least agree that Mandela got the country safely through the most dangerous phase of the transition, and that they can carry on with the job of building a just and democratic society without him.

Except for President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, of course. Mugabe has always deeply resented the fact that Nelson Mandela is revered as the father of his nation while he himself is seen as a vicious tyrant who has ruined his country. So he seized the opportunity of a recent high-profile interview on South African television to accuse Mandela of having failed in his duty to South Africa’s black majority: he had been too soft on the whites.

What would have particularly annoyed Mandela, if he was well enough to watch the show, was that the interviewer was Dali Tambo, the son of his oldest and most trusted ally, the late Oliver Tambo. As young lawyers, the two men cofounded South Africa’s first black-run legal office in 1952, and when Tambo became the president-in-exile of the African National Congress he made Mandela’s release from prison its highest priority.

Dali Tambo is another kettle of fish: a flamboyant man who has traded on his family name to forge a career as a TV interviewer. He has his own soft-focus interview show, “People of the South,” and recently he persuaded Robert Mugabe to give him a two-hour interview. In the course of it, Mugabe dismissed Mandela as “too much of a saint.”
“Mandela has gone a bit too far in doing good to the non-black communities, really in some cases at the expense of blacks,” the Zimbabwean dictator said. “That’s being too saintly, too good, too much of a saint.”
Nonsense. What Nelson Mandela and his white negotiating partner, F.W. De Klerk, were trying to avoid in the early 1990s was a South African civil war that would have killed millions and lasted for a very long time. The 12 percent white minority were heavily armed, and they had nowhere else to go. Their families, for the most part, had been in South Africa for at least a century.
Therefore, a settlement that gave South Africa a peaceful (and hopefully prosperous) democratic future had to be one in which the whites still had a future. So you either make the kind of deal that Mandela and De Klerk made, in which nobody loses too much, or you submit to a future that would make the current civil war in Syria look like a tea party.
And by the way, Mugabe was making his remarks in a country whose economy has been so devastated by his “tougher” approach that fully one-quarter of the population has fled abroad in search of work, mostly to South Africa.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, talking about Mandela’s inevitable death, said last week: “The best memorial to Nelson Mandela would be a democracy that was really up and running: a democracy in which every single person in South Africa knew that they mattered.” That is still some distance away, but Mandela has laid the foundations. He was the right man for the job: a saint who also understood realpolitik.

Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries

By Maria Gregoriou

THE TWO existing mobile network operators, semi-state CyTA and privately-owned MTN have united in their opposition to a third operator, citing the small size of the island’s market.

Acting on EU instructions, the communications ministry has recently invited tenders for a third licensce.

“Cyprus is the last country to start the tender process,” Communications Minister Tasos Mitsopoulos said. “Even Malta, which is smaller, has already gone through the procedures.”

CyTA and MTN however, argued that the market was too small to sustain three providers and it would not be adding any benefits for consumers.

“Under the licence conditions investment must be made in equipment. The question is whether these costs will be passed on to the consumer,” said CyTA spokesman Lefteris Christou.

Due to the small market another competitor will take clients away from the existing operators. “Our costs will not increase but we may lose clients to the new competitor,” Christou added.

A third provider could also create technical problems, resulting in lower quality service, the semi-state company said.

CyTA’s mobile connections in areas close to the buffer zone are already affected as there are two mobile network operators in the north.

“Our network sometimes gets crisscrossed with theirs, leading to a break-down in mobile connections.” Christou said.

The licence differs from that of a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) which can buy services from CyTA or MTN.

PrimeTel, a private telecommunications carrier, is an MVMO in Cyprus.

MTN cannot see a reason for a third operator.

An MTN spokesperson said: “we do not consider that any additional entry will enhance consumer benefits in any way.

Under the current hobbling economy, consolidation is the dominant theme in the sector.”

MTN said a new entry into the marker is likely to harm the investment plans of current operators rather than provide any consumer benefit.

As prices are among the lowest in Europe and technology is at a high standard, consumer needs are already satisfied.

By Maria Gregoriou

THE MEDIEVAL castle in Larnaca is to be opened up to the public  on weekends following a decision by department of antiquities.

Larnaca municipality released a statement yesterday welcoming the decision, saying that “the seven-day week functioning of the medieval castle was a long-standing demand.

It was “unthinkable that a monument located in the busiest area of Larnaca remained closed on Saturdays and Sundays, a period when the coastal front of the city is full of life,” it said.

Wth the castle being open for longer, more locals and tourists will have the opportunity to visit one of the most remarkable sights in Larnaca, it added.

The medieval castle is situated on the southern point of Phinikoudes beach. It houses a small museum consisting of three rooms on the upper floor of the main building. The western room exhibits antiquities from early Christian, Byzantine and post-Byzantine monuments, from the 4th and 16th centuries AD

Photographs of Byzantine wall-paintings dated from the eleventh to the sixteenth centuries AD are exhibited in the central room. In the large eastern room representative examples of medieval glazed pottery, metal cooking utensils and guns, as well as helmets and swords are on display.

The easternmost part of the last room has been transformed into an Ottoman room from 18th to 19th centuries.

The two-storey building on the north side was constructed during the Ottoman period, as indicated by its architectural style. The east and south wings belong to earlier phases. The British colonial administration used the western chamber of the ground floor in the east for the execution of prisoners. The gallows were in use until 1948.
According to written sources, the castle dates back to the reign of King James I, from 1382 until 1398. It was constructed to protect the harbour of the town which was used as the island’s main port after the capture of Famagusta.

Records by Abbot Giovanni Mariti, who lived in Larnaca during the first half of the eighteenth centuary, records it was built by the Turks on an already semi-ruined castle.

The opening of the castle on weekends is not the only way that Larnaca is planning to become more attractive to tourists and locals.

“A small exhibition room is currently being constructed in the Larnaca district museum and another display area is being renovated,” an archeological official at the department of antiquities said referring to other plans to take further advantage of museums and monuments in Larnaca.

An old house in the archaeological site in Larnaca is also being restored. “The important fact is that the entrance to the house is facing a main road, making it easy to be accessed,” the official  added.

During the second annual general meeting of the Larnaca tourism board at the beginning of the month, the board’s president Dinos Lefkariti said that tourism was the driving force of the economy and now was the time for Larnaca to be developed.

“Currently we have a number of projects in mind and some of them have already received the relevant permits,” he said.

The board is planning to develop the existing port and create a new port in Kiti. The petrol storage tanks will be removed, connecting the city with the existing tourist area. Beaches will be connected by the construction of pedestrian paths, and projects to construct a golf course, a new theme park and tennis courts are also on the agenda, according to Lefkariti.

“Regarding a casino, we believe Larnaca has all the requirements necessary to accommodate one. We welcome the government’s decision to proceed with this project and hopefully our city will soon acquire a casino,” Lefkariti said.

The board also awarded easyJet airline with the Larnaca tourism development award for 2013, for adding new services to Larnaca airport and their intention to increase flights.

The award for enhancing Larnaca tourism was awarded to the managers of Kastela beach.

Larnaca castle is currently open Monday to Friday from 8am until 7.30pm. Now it will also be open on Saturday and Sunday from 9.30am until 5pm for the summer period. Admission is €1.70.

Both Paphos Castle and Kolossi Castle, in Limassol, are open from Monday to Sunday from 8.30pm until 7.30pm during the summer. Limassol castle is open from Monday to Saturday from 9am until 5pm and on Sunday from 10am until 1pm.