Company to be registered within the month
Fears that the much-hyped investment promotion agency is to be downgraded are unfounded, the Financial Mirror has learned, following confirmation from the Foreign Investors Service Centre.
Worries that the agency would deal with only a limited number of clients came from the latest members’ report of the Cyprus International Business Association (CIBA), called Intercom.
After a meeting with Ministry of Commerce officials in January, CIBA reported that the agency would be assisting only foreign investors and only those investing at least CYP 1 mln.
CIBA said: “In other words, the agency is not there for everybody and certainly not for international business companies with only
international activities.”
If true, it would have been a blow to a country which is seeing new competitors from the Gulf forge ahead, both in traditional areas such as financial services and in new ones, such as education and golf.
However, the Foreign Investors Service Centre told the Financial Mirror that this information is mistaken and it has sent a clarification to CIBA.
The new agency is committed to helping all foreign investors. The CYP 1 mln threshold refers to the acceleration procedure handled by the Foreign Investors Service Centre for large investments.
Relations between the two organisations remain good, however, with CIBA President Chris Koufaris appearing in a newsletter from the Foreign Investors Service Centre this month.
Meanwhile, the new Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA) is expected to be registered within a month and the target is to make it fully functional from the beginning of 2007, if not before.
A few years ago foreign investors in Cyprus had a ready-made one-stop shop in the form of the Central Bank of Cyprus, which was responsible for all International Business Units.
Since the Central Bank stopped being responsible for IBUs, the main responsibility for serving foreign investors has shifted to the Foreign Investors’ Service Centre located in the Ministry of Commerce.
This unit has no power to speed up applications and so on, but acts more as an information centre, guiding investors on which ministry they need to go to.
The new CIPA will be independent (though the board will be seleted by the Ministry of Commerce) and will also actively promote Cyprus as an investment centre.
Fiona Mullen
