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By Patrick D. Heuchenne
The basis of this outlook on Cyprus was stimulated by recent declarations made by Central Bank Governor Athanassios Orphanides who, in defence over responsibilities said, 'here we are talking about legislation which has essentially served us well for 40 years', with regards to the political row over announcements by Marfin Laiki in moving its headquarters out from Cyprus in search of unhindered growth opportunities.
Are these declarations not a helpless attempt to convince us of the emperor's new clothes? It is my belief that these embody more the current attitude of institutions in Cyprus which have become symbols of asynchronous management of the 21st century.
Cyprus is being lead by a blizzard of tactical actions and patches to overcome the economic stand-still in benefit of a few and an obstacle to change; a very high price to pay for an inherent capacity for being inflexible, reactive, uncaring and blind as to the evolution of government in business since the last decade.
Voices are appealing to calm and cohesiveness; noble gestures such as those made by institutions like the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA), which undoubtedly recognizes the lack of collaboration and synergetic efforts to improve the investment climate in Cyprus. But how can we pretend to be a regional force attracting foreign investment, if Cyprus hasn’t been capable of efficiently resolving inland transport from airports for tourist and residents? 40 years of ubiquitous taxi service may have served the country well, but it hasn’t resolved why dining at the Baths of Aphrodite or exploring Wine tourism in inland Limassol remains today so inaccessible.
While the Cypriot Finance Ministry is about to discover that subsidized tour operators are contributing to growth of the tourism industry in the north, our local tourism enterprises maintain a blind eye of what it means today to be visible on the internet and with it raising the costs which the country maintains for externalising the island’s travel trade marketing efforts to third parties abroad.
It is my hope that the symptoms of tactical failures energise leadership now to get obsessed about results and less about actions. For how can you blame management for its tactical effectiveness when it has yet to convincingly lay out its strategic plans and the results it should be achieving?
Patrick D. Heuchenne resides in Barcelona and is brand strategist from Avantless with 35 years of relations with Cyprus in his youth during industrial reconstruction of 1974 to 1981 under the supervision of the United Nations Development Program and International Labour Office. For the past three years he is as co-founder of Avantless, an international travel and tourism consultancy based in Paphos.
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