“Our aim is for Cyprus to remain an attractive investment destination and a reliable international business centre”, Cyprus Minister of Finance Vassos Shiarlis has said, stressing that the recent positive results of the discovery of natural gas in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus, triggered serious investment interest from large companies based in Canada, China and Russia.
Addressing an event titled “Better Regulation: The way forward”, Shiarlis said that in order to overcome the negative consequences of the global economic crisis, and respecting our obligations as a Eurozone member, the Government has adopted a comprehensive fiscal consolidation package with a view to bring public finances to a sustainable path. “Moreover, a set of new measures aiming at strengthening economic growth and fostering employment are already under implementation”, he added.
Shiarlis expressed his certainty that “these developments will create promising prospects for our country and its people and will lead, in the long-run, to conditions of macroeconomic stability and growth”.
The Minister of Finance pointed out that periods of economic crisis make burdens insufferable to businesses and generally to economies. “In such an environment of economic upheaval, it is extremely important for the European economies to promote the objectives for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, set in the Europe 2020 Strategy”, he said, and added that the initiative of Smart Regulation, as the President of the European Commission, Mr. Barroso, outlines in his Political Guidelines in 2009, can be used as a useful tool for achievement of these objectives, especially those regarding growth and competitiveness.
Shiarlis welcomed the promotion of the Smart Regulation agenda, which is important for the reduction of burdens imposed on small and medium enterprises by unnecessary regulation. “We strongly believe that administrative simplifications and burden reduction are key factors to free up resources and boost business productivity and competitiveness, without increasing public spending”, he said.
In addition, he noted that the enhancement of the consultation process and the strengthening of impact assessments through the “Think Small Principle” is vital for the survival of small medium enterprises, which are the core of small economies, especially of small ones, like Cyprus. “In this context, we also welcome the continuous efforts made by the European Commission, in cooperation with other European institutions and all member states, for the achievement of the administrative burden reduction target of 25% by 2012”, he added.
Conclusively, Shiarlis stated that the success in the promotion of better regulation initiatives lies on the close cooperation between all European Institutions, at the European level, and on the cooperation between governmental departments at the national level. “Most importantly, it lies on the close cooperation and coordination between the public service, the social stakeholders and the private sector, which is the sector that mostly needs to “feel” the benefits of these initiatives, at the end of the day”, he said.
“Better regulation”, he concluded, “is an initiative which contributes in changing the culture and the way of thinking in the private and the public sector, leading to the improvement of the Public Sector and thus increasing the trust of businesses and citizens.
Jonathan Stoodley, from the European Commission, addressing the event said that that the Commission is committed to try to improve communication with businesses. “The coming months there will be a major exercise to draw in proposals from businesses of what are the top ten most infuriating or burden measures of EU regulation”, he said.
Saying that the Commission expects to have more than ten indications from businesses, Stoodley pointed out: “The Commission will be focusing on trying to identify areas where regulatory burdens can be reduced”.
During the event, organised by Cyprus Ministry of Finance, experts from the Cyprus Finance Ministry, the European Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Netherlands Regulatory Reform Group presented their positions and views.
