Cyprus President assures government will protect small enterprises

Cyprus President Demetris Christofias has assured that the government has a plan to protect small businesses in Cyprus from the international financial crisis, noting that the Council of Ministers has recently taken relevant decisions.

Speaking at Larnaca Airport before departing for Bulgaria and asked if the government would be protecting small enterprises, as the four wealthiest EU countries have announced they will, President Christofias said that ''when they speak about sums, and I do not wish to refer to specific sums, they mean that these funds will come from the EU.''

''We have a programme to protect small enterprises and indeed recently the Council of Ministers has taken decisions, which have been announced,'' the President said, adding that ''this is also included in the 2009 budget.''

He explained that what the EU members that met in Paris have decided is that each country should take care of itself and ''anyone who has to help will help and thereafter those who cannot will turn to the European Commission.''

President Christofias said ''this is not the same case as the USA, where Congress has decided on a huge amount,'' adding that ''in a neo-liberal system state assistance is called for.''