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135 days into the Anastasiades “pro-business” administration and we are only now starting to hear what would have been music to our ears a long time ago: that the government has decided to use the ‘fast track’ method to push through its decision for a single, mega-casino resort.
Trouble is, despite all the grandiose declarations and hoopla, this is a project that will not produce tangible results until 2016 or beyond, with little, if any impact, on rising unemployment figures by then.
Perhaps some people in government and politicians alike should be advised not to use the term “fast track” as we have become the laughing stock of the international business community because we have never realised what fast track really means in Cyprus. Company registrations, red tape at government offices, visa applications, naturalisation procedures, plus many more are dealt with using the slow-track lane at best, or at snail’s pace, at worst.
Other jurisdictions have passed us by a long, long time ago and we are still trying to discover why company registrations keep falling and why foreign companies loathe bringing their non-EU staff to the island.
If we want the casino project to go ahead, then “fast track” means a feasibility study in 60 days (seeing as a lot of operators have been prepared for a while), followed by tenders for interest in 30 days, pre-qualification in 30 more and final award at most, 30 days later. In other words, the casino license should be announced in December 2013, not Summer 2014.
Then, there is the negotiating period with the winning license, that should take no more than 30 days and work should start immediately on the first phase within Q1 next year. Only then will we see an impact on lowering unemployment, while the state might even start collecting license fees within 2014.
And perhaps the public officials involved with the whole process should have their leave recalled to ensure that things really do move ahead in a “fast track” mode, not like now when Troika investigators are here for critical reviews and senior government officials are away on their annual holiday.
