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Incentives to encourage R&D activity and promote new ventures soon

08/10/2021 15:54

Research, Innovation and Digital Policy Deputy Minister Kyriacos Kokkinos has said that very soon incentives will be announced in regulatory taxation and immigration policies aiming to enhance digital fitness across industry and society and tools to facilitate access to funding, encourage R&D activity, advance digital transformation of businesses and promote the development of new ventures.

In an address at the Cyprus IT Forum 2021, in Limassol, delivered by Chief Scientist Nikolas Mastroyiannopoulos on his behalf, Kokkinos said that "in the aftermath of COVID-19 Cyprus competitiveness sustainability and prosperity strongly depend on our capacity to develop and advance our posture as a regional tech and innovation hub.”

Our country, he noted, has unique strengths such as human capital, geostrategic location, business friendly environment that can be further leveraged for building a new sustainable pillar of the economy, driven by sciences, tech and innovation.
 
He assured that the government “is fully committed to creating a conductive environment for tech companies and startups to form and grow. With determination, long – term strategy, a solid game plan and of course rigorous execution.”
 
To this end, Kokkinos noted, this Ministry, in collaboration with all other key Ministries has crafted an across-the-board approach.

“Very, very soon we will announce specific interventions in our regulatory taxation and immigration policies, incentives directed to both corporate and individuals, measures to enhance digital fitness across industry and society and tools to facilitate access to funding, encourage R&D activity, advance digital transformation of businesses and promote the development of new ventures,” he said.

He explained that “this is a government wide initiative and we are confident that with the proper orchestration, coordination and close collaboration with the private sector, we will succeed.”
 
In parallel, the Deputy Research Minister pointed out, “we are investing heavily on a holistic digital transformation, accelerating implementation of key e-Government initiatives, capitalising on the potential of emerging technologies and crafting a new, targeted strategy to facilitate the installation of data centre infrastructures.”