The new reality has brought significant changes to Invest Cyprus’ plans for the current year. As a result of the Covid-19 restrictions, the organization proceeded with the reshaping of its action plan, via the digital transformation of all its promotional activities. In particular, the new plan which is already being implemented since the beginning of June, includes a series of general and targeted digital actions focusing on foreign business and investment audiences in ten important target markets.

During the post-Covid era, Invest Cyprus’ main focus are the unexplored markets of India, Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, United States, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan, but also traditional-mature markets for Cyprus, such as the United Kingdom, Israel and Russia in order to maintain the already established good relations. In this view, Invest Cyprus is organizing a series of Digital Roadshows online conferences dedicated to each of these markets.

In addition to the general promotion abroad to strengthen the image of Cyprus as a destination for Foreign Direct Investment, this year’s promotional activities, focus mainly on the promotion of Cyprus as a destination for headquartering, investment funds registration, professional services and investments in the Tourism & Hospitality sectors through the specialized Tour Invest Unit.

In line with the Digital Roadshows, Invest Cyprus has scheduled more than 100 “in-house-webinars” in all areas and target markets, thus reshaping its promotion plan using new technological tools to communicate with the investment and business community abroad,” says the Chief Executive Officer of Invest Cyprus, George Campanellas.

It is worth noting that as part of Invest Cyprus Communication plan for the next 18 months, the Organization carries on with the promotion of the country abroad intensifying Cyprus’ presence on social media networks and in the International Press, through articles, interviews and op-eds, highlighting the positive developments in Cyprus because of the Government’s response to the pandemic as well as during the restart and the recovery phase.

“Attracting direct foreign investment of added value is once more the key to recovery. It is clear that for an open economy like Cyprus, economic recovery will come from external demand,” points George Campanellas.

DYNAMIC SECTORS

TourInvest Cyprus

Despite the tourism uncertainty prevailing globally, TourInvest unit’s efforts are currently focusing on supporting the sector through adjusting the right measures and facilitating regulations under the objective to lay the foundations for investment and to regenerate the sector.

The TourInvest unit is a dedicated and specialized unit of Invest Cyprus which aims to promote Cyprus’ investment opportunities in the tourism and hospitality sector. The establishment of the unit falls in line with our National Tourism Strategy to establish the country as a quality, year-round destination and be one of the most competitive tourist destinations by 2030. The vision of the Cyprus Tourism Strategy is to turn Cyprus into a sustainable and technology-smart destination, enrich and diversify our offering through the development of thematic segments and compact seasonality.

In order to contribute to the achievement of these targets, the TourInvest unit focuses on attracting multi-million investments into large-scale infrastructure projects, in diversified thematic areas, such as nautical tourism, cultural, sports, conference, health and wellness, as well as agrotourism. TourInvest acts as the first point of contact to international investors and provides valid and useful information on projects of their interest.

“The long-term vision is to transform Cyprus into a digitally smart tourism destination, showcasing the potential of the country not only as a sun-and-sea destination, creating further opportunities for tech investors,” explains G. Campanellas.

Part of the TourInvest initiative is to create a Project Bank with all investment opportunities that are available in the hospitality and tourism sector, under the objective to attract investor interest in Cyprus.

The project bank list is available on the dedicated website www.tourinvestcyprus.org.cy which includes available and reliable support materials. Invest Cyprus is encouraging those who are directly involved with market opportunities to send their projects through projects@investcyprus.org.cy.

“TourInvest unit has identified the increasing potential of sustainable tourism, establishing as key strategic priorities the promotion of sustainable tourism investment projects targeting the revitalisation of rural areas, sports tourism growth, health tourism enrichment and conference tourism exploitation,” says Michael Michael, Chairman of Invest Cyprus.

“We have seen a number of international hotel groups investing in the island and expanding their brand name. I am confident that we will manage to emerge from this crisis into a more resilient future and that there will always be the right opportunities that will lead to the mobilisation of the economy again,” notes Campanellas.

Headquartering – Tech Companies

When it comes to choosing the right location to establish international and regional headquarters, Cyprus is increasingly gaining momentum as a prime contender in the minds of decision-makers of tech multinationals. Strategically located at the crossroads of three continents, Europe, Africa and Asia, Cyprus is a modern EU member-state, offering international businesses the ideal environment to set up, grow and prosper. Wide access to markets, strong economic growth, a pro-business environment, tech-savvy talent, low operating costs, and a number of incentives, including a competitive IP regime, are only a few of the reasons why Cyprus is one of the top headquartering destination. As a thriving international community, the island is home to a number of global ICT companies, that use the island as a hub for software development, system integration, testing services, research & development activities, project management, and sales and marketing, while servicing clients in Europe, Middle East, North Africa, and beyond.

“Cyprus has an ideal geographic location at the eastern outpost of the European Union. Our targeted promotional activities are dedicated to prove that Cyprus is an attractive location that could be used as a gateway for international companies wishing to gain access into the EU. Cyprus can also serve as a strategic location for UK companies, choosing to retain a presence in Europe following Brexit,” explains Michael Michael.

“Cyprus has the potential to become a tech cluster, hosting companies that are looking to base their headquarters here and we believe there is more room for the tech sector to use Cyprus as a base for their European and international operations. Such developments shall have a positive spillover effect in all economic sectors creating significant growth prospects,” says George Campanellas.

SINGLE POINT OF ENTRY

The Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency, a full member of WAIPA, was created in 2008 as state-owned company with the purpose to become the first point of contact with the international business and investor community, to establish presence through office-network in international target-markets and to promote the export of services, promote and attract investments in priority sectors for the Government, through forming a national strategy for investment promotion and attraction.

Invest Cyprus’ mission is to raise awareness of Cyprus as a location for FDI across the globe, providing certainty around all aspects of operating a business in Cyprus and supporting potential investors in developing their business case for investment in Cyprus.

Beyond enhancing Cyprus’ image as an FDI destination, Invest Cyprus strategic goals include the development of new economic sectors as well as the opening up of new geographical markets for Cyprus.