Cyprus is strategically located at the crossroads of three continents bringing together Europe with the Middle East and North Africa for business and commerce.
The country’s European Union Membership (May 2004) and the elimination of exchange rate risk following the adoption of the Euro (January 2008) have built up investor confidence.
Cyprus has been included in the OECD “White List” (April 2009) for having substantially implemented internationally agreed tax standards.
Other incentives:
Cyprus is considered a Low Tax Country.
The following factors can be considered:
There is a wide network of air-routes connecting Cyprus with Europe, Africa and Asia. The island’s two international airports are situated near Larnaka and Pafos, some 50 and 150 kms, respectively, from Nicosia. They handle over 650 scheduled flights per week served by 37 international airlines as well as flights operated by 60 chartered airlines. The island is rapidly becoming a major international transit station for commercial air transportation with excellent connections within the entire region.
One hundred shipping lines include Cyprus in their regular schedules to and from 5 continents. About 5.000 ships totalling 18 million net registered tons call at Cypriot ports each year.
Limassol and Larnaka ports are the island’s main sea gateways handling well over 6 million tons or two-thirds of the total volume of sea-borne cargo, including the entire traffic in transit.
Cyprus recognizes the importance of telecommunications and has invested heavily in the development of this sector. As a result, the island may claim, in this respect, to be among the most developed countries in the world.
Apart from conventional telecommunications services (telephony, telex, telefax and telegraphy) the Cyprus Telecommunications Companies offers services such as: the packet switched data network, mobile telephony (GSM and NMT900), voicemail, paging, maritime, TV transmission/reception, private leased circuits, audiotex, videoconferencing, access to the Internet and the X400 message handling system. Furthermore, the Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) has recently begun operating on a full commercial basis.
An equally impressive satellite telecommunications network complements this extensive fibre optic cable network.