FinMin presented National Recovery and Resilience Plan

Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides presented on Wednesday in detail the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, which is the blueprint containing projects and reforms with a view to absorb 1.2 bln euro from the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Fund (Next Generation EU).

The Cyprus Plan provides for a total of 1.2 billion euro, of which 1 billion in contribution and 0.23 billion in loans. Petrides said that these public investments will mobilise an additional 1.4 billion in private capital. The Minister added that based on estimates, the actions, investments and reforms will result to a GDP growth 7% in the period 2022 - 2026 and 16.5% in the next 20 years. Employment is expected to grow by 1% over the next two years, 3% over the next five years and by 6% over the next 20 years.

The National Plan, which is a document of more than 1,000 pages, connects the raising of these funds for exiting the pandemic crisis, by strengthening the resilience of the economy with a series of actions, investments and reforms, with the latter being a precondition for the disbursement of EU  funds from the EU Recovery and Resilience Fund (Next Generation EU) amounting to 750 billion.

The Plan is expected to be approved by the European Commission in two months and then the first installment will be given as an advance, corresponding to 13% of the total.

It includes 58 reforms and 76 investments, while 41% of the total funds or 501 million will be for the green transition and 23% or 282 million for digital transition, thus exceeding the thresholds set by the European Commission, for 37% and 20% respectively.

The distribution of funds will be as follows: For public health and civil protection, lessons from the crisis 74.1 mln or 6% of the total, for rapid transition to Green Economy 447.6 mln or 36.3% of the total, for  strengthening resilience and competitiveness of the economy 449.3 mln or 36.4% of the total, for digital age 89.4 mln or 7.3% of the total and for employment, social protection, education and human resources 172.9 mln or 14%.

Each policy is divided into subsections, with the distribution of the relevant investments and the presentation of the necessary legislative changes and reforms. The funds of the Plan also contribute to the achievement of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.

It is noted that the overall distribution of the green transition and the digital transition is higher, since funds from these two policies are included in other policy areas.

The Minister said that the Plan is interconnected with the Cohesion Policy program, THALIA, which concerns funds of 1.8 billion euro, adding that they complement each other.

"They are not separate, they are two tools, which have a common vision, to mobilise a new growth model with very similar key pillars," the Minister said.

Concluding, he sent a message of unity for mobilisation at technocratic and political level, so that reforms are made to fully utilise the 1.2 billion euro of the National Plan.