02/06/2021 09:02
Nicosia is expected to receive €150 million from the EU Recovery Fund once it has been approved around the end of June or beginning of July, Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides has said, adding that the government has already started going ahead with public tenders for a number of projects.
Petrides was replying to journalists questions, in statements after signing an Agreement for the Avoidance of Double Taxation between Cyprus and Holland, on Tuesday.
He said that the government has already started the implementation of the Recovery Fund and that public tenders have been published for some of the projects.
He added that the Minister of Health has already announced tenders for some projects, while projects which have to do with innovation and growth are already on the go.
"We are not waiting, we have already started implementing the Recovery Fund, and the reason that we started implementing it is that it is additional to a more general state policy which has started being implementing for some years," Petrides said noting that that there are milestones which also require the Parliament`s cooperation.
He expressed the wish that the new Parliament will view this effort for cooperation with enthusiasm.
Replying to another question, Petrides said that once the Recovery Fund has been approved, which is thought to be by the end of June to beginning of July, that is to say two months after its submission, Cyprus will receive 12% or 13% of its share which corresponds to 150 million euros.
The money the country will receive before the projects are implemented constitute a liquidity boost, he noted. The rest of the funds will follow on the basis of 257 milestones included in the Recovery Fund and the progress the country will make in implementing these milestones, Petrides said.