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FinMin: Green and digital transition to revamp economy

21/10/2021 09:40

Minister of Finance Constantinos Petrides spoke on revamping the economy via green and digital transition in his speech at Digital Agenda Summit held Wednesday in Nicosia.

The Minister of Finance referred to the Cyprus Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), amounting to €1.2 billion, which is expected to mobilise more than €1 billion of private funds.

He furthermore said RRP’s goals, was to strengthen the economy’s resilience and the country’s potential for economically, socially and environmentally sustainable long-term growth and welfare.

“The Cypriot plan forms part of an unprecedented coordinated EU response to the COVID-19 crisis, to address common European challenges by embracing the green and digital transitions, to strengthen economic and social resilience and the cohesion of the Single Market,” he said.

He noted that 415 of the plan’s total allocation for reforms and investments support climate objectives and 23% of the plan’s total allocation support digital objectives.  He also referred to initiatives at national level as the strategy to attract international companies and talent in Cyprus.

Petrides said that the European Commission considers that Cyprus`s plan includes an extensive set of mutually reinforcing reforms and investments that contribute to addressing all or a significant subset of the economic and social challenges outlined in the country-specific recommendations addressed to Cyprus and that it also contributes to addressing challenges of the Cypriot economy with regards to competitiveness, productivity and the need to diversify the growth model.

According to the Commission’s baseline scenario, the plan leads to a cumulative increase in GDP by about 9.1% by 2026. In the low productivity scenario, a cumulative increase in GDP by about 5.9% is expected.

According to the economic impact assessment, carried out by the Economics Research Centre of the University of Cyprus, the RRP can lead to a cumulative economic growth and more specifically increase the GDP by about 7% in the medium-term (2022-2026). Also the Plan can increase employment by more than 2.5%, or by around 11,000 new jobs during the period 2021-2026.