Investing in Cyprus – Foreign Investors Service Centre
“The One-Stop Shop constitutes the central agency of information, support and foreign investors’ relations”
One of the primary objectives of the Government’s development policy is to foster the infusion of foreign investment in all economic sectors. Towards this end, a Foreign Investors Service Centre operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, located at the Ministry’s headquarters in Nicosia.
The Centre operates as a full-service “One-Stop Shop” for foreign-based companies interested in investigating investment opportunities in Cyprus. It constitutes the central agency of information, support, and foreign investors’ relations. It plays a vital role in attracting FDIs in targeted industries, especially focusing on the development of high technology products, the enhancement of R&D and technology transfer; fields essential for the upgrading and the enrichment of production capacity and the productive fabric’s competitiveness.
The Centre’s activities include:
- Promotion of Cyprus as an international business as well as an R&D centre.
- Organization of promotional activities for the dissemination of Cyprus’s competitive advantages and encouragement of foreign investment.
- Provision of information to investors regarding financial, legal and taxation matters in implementing a project in Cyprus.
- Provision of advice to potential investors regarding the most effective way of making use of the package of the various benefits offered (e.g. Grant Schemes).
- Liaising with various governmental departments and facilitating the process of granting the necessary approvals, such as the work permits, required for implementing projects.
- Provision of aftercare service aimed at anchoring existing investors and encouraging them to upgrade their activities in Cyprus.
- Finally, the Centre is a member of ANIMA, the Euro-Mediterranean Network of investment Promotion Agrencies (IPAs), in an effort of associating, exchanging best practices, and improve FDI attraction capabilities among the IPAs of the EU and MEDA countries.