The government aims to help the economic sectors stricken by the pandemic but also to invest in alternative areas with emphasis on the relocation of companies to Cyprus, research and innovation, among others, through tax and other incentives, President Nicos Anastasiades said on Wednesday.

The European Commission has approved two Cypriot schemes to support companies and self-employed who were forced to suspend their activities due to the restrictive measures imposed by the government to curb the outbreak of the pandemic.

Applications opened on Tuesday for a scheme that will cover up to 60% of upgrades to make homes more energy efficient.

An American company has put words into action in the middle of global 5G wars, with Phoenix Tower International and Monaco Telecom announcing an agreement that includes acquiring newly constructed wireless towers across Malta and Cyprus.

Cyprus, Israel and Greece signed on Monday a Memorandum of Understanding taking another step towards connecting the electricity grids via the EuroAsia Interconnector, a 1,208-kilometre 2,000 MW capacity subsea HVDC cable.

Cyprus GDP grew by 1.4% in the last quarter of the coronavirus-struck year of 2020, compared with the previous quarter, while the rest of the European Union recorded a decrease of 0.5%, according to Eurostat.

Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides pledges the government will continue to support coronavirus-stricken economic activity to reduce high unemployment and fix stressed public finances.

Construction activity declined in 2020 for the first time in five years, building permits dropped in the area covered and value, as the industry felt the effects of the disgraced “golden passports” scheme plus the pandemic.

A pledgee, under a Cypriot law pledge, who has in its possession the so called the Self-Enforcement Documents (i.e. original certificate of pledged shares, original duly signed and undated instrument of transfer of shares, original duly signed written resignations of the directors/secretary of the company, whose shares have been pledged to the pledgee, undated certificate duly signed by the secretary, that all filings to be made by new secretary are in compliance with the registers of the company etc.) is usually given by the terms of the relevant pledge agreement, the right and power, upon the happening of an Event of Enforcement, to inter alia proceed, without any further written notice to the pledgor, to put into effect the Self-Enforcement Documents, and to transfer the legal title of the pledged shares to the name of the pledgee or to its nominee, and to replace the directors and secretary of the company, whose shares have been pledged.  

In January this year, we were all saddened by the news that our Founder and Executive Chairman of the Leptos Group of Companies, Michael Leptos, had passed away.