AUGUST is usually the slowest month of the year for news, which may partly explain the big fuss made about the friendly relations between the director of the president’s diplomatic office, Marios Ieronymides and the Chinese businessman Yang Qi.
Yang Qi is the owner of the company Far Eastern Phoenix (FEP), which is currently negotiating terms with the government for turning the old Larnaca airport into a regional commercial centre. Newspapers have been crying ‘foul’ because Ieronymides’ Serbian wife was a director of FEP when it made the airport proposal earlier this year. She stepped down in March, around the time the provisional agreement between the FEP and the government had been signed.
Then again, Mrs Ieronymides, is a businesswoman in her own right and had been a director of FEP since 2009 long before the Larnaca Airport project had even been thought of. According to her husband, she had joined the company because it had plans, which eventually fell through, to undertake projects in the Balkans. She did the right thing in stepping down when FEP started discussing the airport project, because of her husband’s state position.
As for Ieronymides, his friendship with Yang Qi that dates back to when he was ambassador in Beijing, could hardly be described as unethical. All good ambassadors try to promote the commercial interests of their country when abroad and this is achieved by developing friendly relations with local businessmen. In the case of Cyprus, which does not have industrial products to sell, its ambassador would encourage foreign businessmen to invest in the island, which was what Ieronymides did. It was not as if there were hundreds of Chinese businessmen queuing up to invest in Cyprus and Ieronymides favoured the company of which his wife was a director.
Meanwhile, the negotiations between the government and FEP were the responsibility of a ministerial committee headed by the Communications Minister Efthymios Flourentzos, who said that Ieronymides had no role in the negotiations. He was present during the signing of the agreement with FEP as a friend of Yang Qi, which may have been unwise, given his state position. This is why there should be an investigation to establish if Ieronymides was guilty of any wrongdoing or improper conduct, because on the surface he does not appear to have done much wrong.
Perhaps there should also be an investigation into FEP, 50.1 of which’s shareholding is held in trust by Montrago Nominees Ltd. Yang Qi, who owns the 49.9 per cent of the company was also the owner of the Montrago shares, stated the law firm that represents him, but the government needs to look into the matter. It should also establish how a company with a share capital of a thousand euro could undertake a multi-million euro project.
These are more important questions to answer than Ieronymides’ relations with the Chinese businessman.