NOW that the disastrous bailout deal has been done and dusted other than receiving the necessary approval from a number of European parliaments, the government has set to try and put the country back together.
How they will do this to any great extent is anyone’s guess.
President Nicos Anastasiades began on Sunday with an address to Russian businesses. Other than relaxing the rules on citizenship for many of those who sustained losses in the deposits haircut, there was not much else to offer them except grand words all of which have been heard before.
‘Cyprus will offer favourable tax incentives for existing or new companies doing business here, encourage foreign investments, increase Cyprus’ competitiveness and creating a more effective and business-friendly environment.’
It all sounds a bit like clutching at straws. The financial sector is broken all trust is gone, and worn-out clichιs are not going to solve this. Why try to hang on to a business model the EU deliberately and methodically destroyed and has no wish to see resurface. Efforts should be focused elsewhere, and although gas has been cited as a sustainable replacement, it is very far down the road.
The cabinet yesterday began two days of meetings to work out a strategy for the shorter term. They will announce the measures on Thursday. According to Anastasiades’ speech on Sunday, there are major opportunities for growth in various sectors, such as shipping, tourism, large infrastructure projects, the film industry, education, health, research and development, and energy including photovolatics, all of which would be fast tracked.
The same things have been said for years, and in each of those sectors, the voices calling for law changes and investment were ignored because Cyprus was sitting pretty on a bloated financial sector that kept the economy flush. Research and development was bottom of every list, universities spent years pleading for investment as did those in green energy. Instead the banks threw their cash at worthless Greek government bonds.
If previous governments or parliaments had paid any heed, all of the sectors they’re now looking to save us, could have been fully developed over the past 20 years and the loss of the financial sector might not have hit as hard. But internal wranglings and vested interests have always got in the way of speedy lawmaking.
The fallacy that it takes interminable discussions at government and parliamentary levels to get anything done in this country has also been exposed in recent weeks. When they want/have to, things can be done quickly at official levels. Witness the complete destruction of the economy, legally, in the space of a month.
Now that the economy has been decimated and the financial sector gone, all those other sectors are receiving the attention they should have had years ago. However investing in them now will take time and money, the latter of which is in short supply, leaving Cyprus once again paying the price for the procrastination of its leaders.
