Work on a new marina in Ayia Napa should begin in April 2014 if new plans to lower costs are accepted, the head of the Famagusta Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) said yesterday.

The Cyprus banking system has shifted to crisis-resolution phase, according to Isobel von Koeppen Mertes, Advisor in the European Central Bank Market Operations Analysis Division, speaking at the Economist 9th Cyprus Summit, but needs to avoid some of the mistakes seen in Ireland.

Solving the Cyprus problem would be another way to boost the island’s economy and a way to ensure long term stability and prosperity for all, US Ambassador John Koenig has said as he urged the divided communities to resolve the longstanding issue.

European officials did not appear concerned over the performance of Cypriot banks in an upcoming stress test on eurozone lenders.

Faithful implementation of the bailout agreement was the only way to restore confidence in the island’s economy, which had been left to follow an unsustainable course for years, President Nicos Anastasiades has said.

The two leaders met for almost three hours in a friendly, informal meeting in the buffer zone that made zero progress in overcoming the deadlock on a joint declaration needed to kick-start fully-fledged negotiations.

The Natural Gas Public Company (DEFA) will soon be launching a new tender for interim supplies of natural gas for the purposes of electricity generation, reports say.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) experts, currently in Cyprus at the request of the finance ministry, will submit to the government a draft legal document on the establishment of a national Hydrocarbons Fund.

Cyprus deserved a higher rating on tax transparency than the OECD gave it in a report last week, the finance ministry has said.

The government is to begin talks with an Italian-South Korean consortium that may lead to the award of gas and oil exploration concessions for offshore blocks 5 and 6.