Filenews 3 March 2022 - by Dora Christodoulou
The first victims of the war in Ukraine in terms of economic activity in Cyprus will be Limassol and Paphos. This is appreciated by the President of the Cyprus Association of Great Development, Andreas Dimitriadis, who in his statements to "F", stressed that it is now urgent for the Government to immediately draw up a new investment framework that will allow the penetration into new markets to find investors.
"In relation to the tourism industry of course, the sector of large developments is not affected to such a direct extent by the war," said Mr. Dimitriadis. " And this since there was already a great stagnation in the promotion of large projects after the abolition of the naturalization program and in conjunction with the pandemic. That is why the Association had already called on the Government to adopt new attractive investment measures to attract new investments.
Now, however, with Russia's war in Ukraine, things are getting noticeably worse in the area of large developments as well, since investors already operating on our island are Russians and Ukrainians. It is therefore urgent to take measures to be decided to attract investors from other countries."
The president of the Association for The Great Development identifies the great part of the economic damage from the international developments in Limassol primarily and Paphos secondarily. Limassol, he explains, is the area where most of the major development projects being built in Cyprus today are in progress, with a very significant Russian presence, mainly.
"It should be taken into account," he stressed, "the fact that a large part of these investment funds has already begun to head to Paphos recently, mainly due to the very high accuracy prevailing in the real estate sector in Limassol. Now, these investment moves stop anyway."
Apart from the large developments, Andreas Dimitriadis also mentions, the smaller developments in the construction sector are now in an unfavourable position. The first residence, but also the second house that employs a large part of European and Russian visitors, ceases to be an important part of the construction industry of the place, during the war and the economic restrictions imposed on Russia, since the absence of tourist flow to a large extent means the sharp decrease in interest in buying houses.
"It must also be said that many Russian capital companies operate in Cyprus or participate in Cypriot capital companies," he concluded. "These investment funds are now inactive, so it is an immediate need for the Government to find ways and measures that will allow the arrival of investment funds from countries other than Russia, firstly, and Ukraine secondarily."
