Cyprus companies, active or start-ups, now have the opportunity to raise funding from three new programs, aiming to boost innovative entrepreneurship and help globalize innovative products and services.

Local energy giant Petrolina’s new fuel storage facilities at the Vassiliko hub will be ready by the end of 2019, with the company’s main shareholders hoping to utilise the vacated land on the Dhekelia road for commercial and property development.

A bill creating a Deputy Ministry for Digital Strategy, Research and Innovation will be tabled to the cabinet for approval soon, President Nicos Anastasiades said.

The Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) has revised its forecast for GDP growth for 2019 downward to 3.5% from 3.7% it estimated in December 2018.

Leading energy-sector technical engineering recruitment specialist Fircroft has included two subsea electricity cables running through Cyprus among the 10 biggest transmission and distribution projects in the world for 2019.

President Nicos Anastasiades and lawmakers recently discussed the economy with prominent foreign investors, and possible measures for its improvement, during a round-table discussion at the presidential palace.

Fifteen years after it entered the Cyprus market as the first private telecom operator, challenging the monopoly of state-owned Cyta, MTN has been rebranded as Epic following a €260m takeover, with ownership once again in European hands.

Ryanair said recently it will continue to grow in Cyprus next winter and will deliver a total of 1.2 million customers annually at Larnaca and Paphos airports, a 30% increase year-on-year.

In June 2019, economic sentiment deteriorated on weaker business confidence as the Economic Sentiment Indicator decreased by 1.9 points compared with May, the University of Cyprus research centre said.

More than 1,000 participants will take part in the largest Robotex robotics festival to be held on June 29 and 30, 2019 at the University of Cyprus.