Filenews 10 December 2020 - by Adamos Adamou
Can the... Amazon's purchase of Cyprus, which rather jokingly predicted in its outrageous forecasts for 2021, Saxo Bank, seems like an April Fool's joke, however, Invest Cyprus's attempt to attract foreign companies to the country seems to be paying off and in the coming weeks official announcements are expected to install three technology giants in Cyprus.
According to information provided by "F", as part of the organization's strategy to promote Headquarters - for the establishment, that is, in Cyprus of the headquarters of companies - at least three companies in the field of technology have seen with good eye the benefits that our country has to offer and are in the process of establishing a base in Cyprus. The three technology giants, all listed on major stock exchanges, will have a physical presence in the country, acquire their own offices and transfer to Cyprus a large number of qualified staff, while at the same time recruiting from the local market.
The Board of Directors of Invest Cyprus, Giorgos Kampanellas, confirmed by speaking to "F" the news, however, he did not want to reveal the names of the companies that will be established in Cyprus, referring to the official announcements that the companies themselves are obliged under the stock exchange authorities to make first.
"We are very pleased to see the efforts we started last year, as part of our five-year Strategic Plan, being implemented gradually. The benefits to the Cypriot economy are significant and horizontal and include, among other things, increasing the tax base, increasing consumption and indirect taxes, support in the professional services and real estate sectors, as well as the creation of new jobs."
The establishment in Cyprus of the three companies, in the form of wargaming and other technology companies, such as eToro, NCR, 3CX, AMDOCS, UTX, is expected to offer further value to the Cypriot economy and to efforts to attract new investments. Furthermore, it is estimated that they will also help to restore the name of our country in the international arena, following the recent conflict, as a result of the bad practices that accompanied the Cyprus Investment Programme, as reflected in the lens of Al Jazeera. The descent into Cyprus of the three technology giants, with a turnover of millions of euros each, as we are informed is expected at the beginning of the new year. The development is part of Invest Cyprus' effort to promote the Headquartering of IT companies which is the main objective of the organization's 2019-2023 strategy. In this context, the organisation has also continued its efforts to attract companies, focusing on technology companies with digital means. In particular, throughout the year Invest Cyprus organized a significant number of promotional activities and participated in online conferences, presenting the advantages of Cyprus to a large number of international companies from the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, Lebanon and other countries of the Middle East and Asia. In fact, today there is a big online Roadshow in Belarus, and the year closes for Invest Cyprus with the Roadshow in Russia on December 15th.
With new weapons
In addition to extending tax incentives for high-paid foreign workers passed by the Parliament, significant changes were adopted to remove barriers to the employment of qualified staff from third countries in specific areas of technology and information technology.
In an interview recently given to "F" by Invest Cyprus G.D. Giorgos Kampanellas and listing more generally the comparative advantages that make it an ideal destination for multinational companies, he referred to the geographical location of the island and the wide access it offers to large markets, the favourable business environment, the strong European legal framework, the attractive tax regime and the low operating costs. He also referred to the high level of quality of life, skilled human resources and quality support services, as well as other more specialised incentives, such as attractive intellectual property status, which is an important parameter for IT and IT companies. In order to further strengthen its efforts, the Agency is also awaiting the results of a related investigation. "We await the results of a large sectoral survey carried out on behalf of our organization by a team of specialized consultants, the aim of which is to develop a National Strategy for the establishment of Cyprus as an attractive European TechHub. We are working directly with the Ministries of Finance, Trade, Interior, Labour and Foreign Affairs to promote additional changes to the institutional framework and to adopt further incentives to strengthen our efforts to attract more international IT and IT companies," Mr Campanellas said yesterday speaking to our newspaper.
