07/09/2020 16:32
The Republic of Cyprus maintains the leading position among the European Investment Bank (EIB) shareholder countries for 2020 with agreements for projects that correspond to 1.5% of the GDP of Cyprus, Minister of Finance Constantinos Petrides, has said, after a meeting he held in Nicosia with EIB President Werner Hoyer.
He added that programs amounting to 500 million euro have been approved by the EIB, while by the end of the year it is expected that additional 200 million will follow.
He noted that since 2013 the EIB has funded projects in Cyprus amounting to 1.7 billion.
"As far as 2020 is concerned, Cyprus maintains the first place among the EIB shareholder countries with agreements for financing projects that correspond to 1.5% of the GDP of Cyprus" he said.
Cyprus, he said, was the first country that signed the participation agreements in the Pan-European Guarantee Fund. The first installment was approved on the 2nd of September and is a loan of 200 million.
He also pointed out that the banks participating in the Enterpreneurship Fund have already started lending.
Petrides thanked the bank for the recent approval of a loan of 150 million to finance the CyprusGas2EU project at the Vasilikos energy center, which aims to deliver natural gas to power plants in Cyprus, in order to be able to generate electricity using natural gas and thus comply with EU directives.
Concluding he thanked the bank for its longlasting support and its recent support during the lockdown.
In his statements, Hoyer, said that Cyprus is his first foreign trip after the lockdown, something, as he said, that shows that "are very sensitive as regards to issues of Cyprus".
He expressed gratitude that Cyprus was the first country of EU to sign up to the Guarantee Fund.
Hoyer, who was received in the morning by President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades, stressed that the Bank does not operate in any other European country more than in Cyprus, which brings that to 1.5% of GDP annually or 500 mln euro approvals so far.
He also said that the Cyprus Gas Import Facility or LNG terminal is for the EU of highest importance because this will reduce the heavy dependence on fossil fuel use and is in the interest of the energy diversification and security of Cyprus but also in the climate interest of the EU.
Hoyer pointed out that the Bank is particularly interested in those activities and this is why they are also very active on energy efficiency activities in Cyprus, which, as he said, can be extended as well.
He also referred to the Cyprus Entrepreneurship scheme worth 200 million euro. In addition to that he said there could be some other deals with broadband companies, the national roads system and the Vasilikos power plant.
“We are optimistic that our support for Cyprus can continue as it has been working all the time. We have been in Cyprus before the financial crisis, we stayed here during the financial crisis and we continued after the financial crisis and we have since then further built up our activities here so we are at 1.5% of GDP now and we are going to continue this trend”, he said.
The Bank, he said, has been very active from the beginning in the COVID19 challenge, and recalled that the Bank gave billions of euro for the research of new vaccines.
“I think we are quite successful, we have put a couple of billion euros into the research and development of a vaccine and I am optimistic that by the turn of the year we might see the first results of this research and development. And then it will be important to develop and distribute in a fair manner those vaccines in the EU and globally”, he went on to say.
Concluding, Hoyer thanked the government of Cyprus for its strong support.