The Natural Gas Public Company (Defa) has – again – extended the deadline for the submission of bids for infrastructures relating to the import of liquefied natural gas for electricity production.

The Paphos Tourism Promotion Company and a number of Paphos hotels are participating in Dublin’s Holiday World Show that opens on Friday 25 January as they seek to capitalise on the launch of direct flights this summer.

The University of Cyprus (UCy) has remained at number 30 on the Emerging Economies University Rankings 2019 conducted by Times Higher Education, while the University of Technology (Tepak) fell five places this year to 42.

The fifth Southern EU countries (MED7) Summit which will convene on January 29 in Nicosia will discuss migration, Brexit, eurozone reform, Europe’s energy security, climate changes and the 2021-2027 EU Multiannual Financial Framework.

Global insurance sector growth is expected to remain weak, and companies must focus on technology and innovative initiatives that optimize costs, drive wider distribution and market reach and explore local niche market segments, to spur growth reveals EY Insurance Outlook 2019. The latest editions of EY insurance outlook series ‒ covering the three regions, Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe ‒ are the result of several think tank sessions of EY industrial and functional professionals as well as strategists and technologists.

A discussion on Cyprus was organised by Invest Cyprus during the Vibrant Gujarat 2019 Global Investment Summit, which took place in India from January 18 to 20, with the participation of over 45,000 personalities from 100 countries.

The foundation stone for the new private power plant at Vassiliko, PEC Power will take place next month, it was announced recently.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Cyprus from 2014 to 2017 came to approximately €9.2bn, of which €4.8bn derived from the various naturalisation schemes, the Commerce Ministry has stated.

Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) in the Cyprus banking system marked a €5.6 billion reduction since the end of June 2018. NPLs dropped from a total of €16.6 billion to €11.02 billion in September 2018, as Hellenic Bank acquired the performing part of the Cyprus Cooperative Bank, converting it to an asset management company.

The general government deficit rose to €1.050bn in the third quarter of 2018 as a result of the state’s divestment of the ‘good part’ of the Cyprus Cooperative Bank, the statistical office has reported.