The Republic of Cyprus recently signed, in Strasburg, the base of the Council of Europe (CoE), the CoE-OECD Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters (ETS no. 127) and its Protocol (ETS no. 208).

The mosque of Hala Sultan in the coastal town of Larnaca has received the certificate of Excellence for 2014 by the well-known and established travel website TripAdvisor, used by millions of travelers around the world.

Minister of Energy Giorgos Lakkotrypis says that in addition to the discovery so far of 5 tcf of natural gas in Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone, the government is optimistic for further discoveries in the near future, as over the next 12 to 18 months the exploration activities of the licensees will intensify.

A meeting took place recently between the leaderships of the Research Promotion Foundation, the Cyprus Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEB) and the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), with the aim to enhance the ability of Cypriot research/academic centres and enterprises to absorb more funds from the EU programms on research and innovation.

Cypriot Enterprise Link and Startup Europe co-organized the event 'Entrepreneurship in Europe: Opportunities for Cyprus' that took place on July 7th at the CYTA Amphitheatre in Nicosia.

House prices in Cyprus fell 5.7% year-on-year in the first quarter of 2014, the third largest drop in the European Union, the EU’s statistical service, Eurostat, said recently.

Finance Minister Harris Georgiades recently welcomed banks’ efforts to recapitalise ahead of EU-wide stress tests in the autumn of 2014.

Property owners will pay this year’s immovable property tax (IPT) on rates based 1980s values, parliament unanimously decided recently, after disagreements over the updated rates tabled by the government.

The House unanimously voted an amendment recently to the legislation governing the Financial ombudsman’s office, expanding its mediating powers and fulfilling Cyprus’ obligation towards its international lenders to have the institution up and running.

Parliament recently passed a bill overhauling the current welfare system and replacing it with a new troika-inspired one, with the Guaranteed Minimum Income (GMI) at its forefront.