Did you know that Cyprus offers full access to all European markets, as well as to more than 40 EU trade agreements? Not only that but with more than 55% of the workforce holding tertiary education qualifications – the highest in Europe – Cyprus is home to an outstanding pool of human talent.  Thus, investing in Cyprus can be proved very beneficial for many reasons.

Investing in Cyprus

Cyprus has grown vastly and managed to become a dynamic business and investment hub that can offer opportunities across a wide range of sectors to professionals, entrepreneurs, and investors from around the world.

The island is attractive for setting up a company, partnership, or trust for many reasons, which we will analyse in our future articles. Below, we will briefly mention some of the top ones:

A Strategic Location to Reach Major Markets

Cyprus is situated in a privileged geographic location, at the crossroads of three major continents: Europe, Asia, and Africa. This offers great potential for whoever interested to invest, to reach major markets in nearby regions and makes the country a strategic business hub.

Safety and Quality of Life

The country is sunny all-year-round and its climate is one of the most favourable in the world. Cyprus has the most Blue Flag beaches per capita in the EU (Eurostat), with bathing water ranked as excellent and second-best in the EU. The island was also voted in the Top 5 safest countries worldwide (Value Penguin 2015).

One of The Most Favourable Tax Systems

Cyprus’ tax regime is one of the most attractive and transparent ‘onshore’ ones in the world. It includes a wide range of double taxation agreements with other countries as well as competitive tax rates. More specifically, Cyprus has one of the lowest corporate tax rates in the EU.

Business-Friendly Infrastructure

If you are thinking of starting a business in Cyprus, this is a straightforward endeavour since the country has a solid and business-friendly infrastructure as well as a wide range of services. Not to mention that English is commonly used as the main language within entrepreneurs, and investors have access to numerous modern and affordable office spaces in the major cities. There are a lot more reasons why someone would be interested to invest in Cyprus, which we discuss in Why invest in Cyprus? Here are the top reasons!

Cypriot Economy: Among the Fastest-Growing In the Eurozone

The economy in Cyprus has followed a continuous upward trajectory during the last years and is considered as one of the fastest-growing economies in the Eurozone. The many reasons for investing in Cyprus as mentioned also before, make the foreign investment to continue to flow at a steady pace. Moreover, many key investment sectors on the island are flourishing. Some of those growth sectors are:

Investment Funds Growing Exponentially

The investment funds sector in Cyprus has grown exponentially in the past years.

During the 2nd quarter of 2020, recorded a 5.3% increase compared to the 1st quarter of 2020, increasing by 200% compared to 2016.

The newly introduced Registered Alternative Investment Funds (RAIFs), has strengthened the Cypriot funds’ sector as it has decreased the time and cost required to set up an AIF in the country.

For Investment firms, Cyprus has been the jurisdiction of choice for more than 20 years, especially for Forex CFD brokers. An excellent infrastructure and an efficient regulatory framework only adds to the common benefits.

Some common advantages for the financial services industry are:

• The Modern Legal framework in line with all the latest EU regulations.
• Lowest costs among competing jurisdictions.
• The professional level of financial services offering,
• Tax incentives including special rates on employee remuneration reduced corporate tax under criteria and no administration fee are just a few.

Finally, the prospect of a ‘no-deal’ Brexit had seen an increase in financial services companies and fund managers looking at Cyprus as a ‘low cost’ European base to retain EU ‘passporting’ rights.

Research & Development and Start-Ups

Current trends point towards the growing importance of technology. During the Covid crisis, more and more people embraced the digital world—from Zoom meetings to online delivery services to virtual classrooms and beyond.

In an effort to diversify its economy Cyprus made a considerable push to foment innovation in business, entrepreneurship, and an environment conducive for start-ups. As a result, funding is widely available to both local and foreign entrepreneurs looking to chase their dreams of innovation on the island.

Incentives for investors and Entrepreneurs include:

• The Cyprus Entrepreneurship Fund,
• The Horizon 2020,
• Innovation Hub

Additionally, Cyprus offers its own -start-up-visa allowing non-EU citizens to set up on the island and the fast-track business activation mechanism which offers accelerated procedures for the incorporation and re-domiciliation of companies.

More on this topic can be found in Investing in Cyprus: Key Economic Sectors.

About CX Financia and How We Can Help You

CX Financia is actively participating in webinars regarding Why to invest in Cyprus and The Key Economic Sectors, in an effort to create awareness about this topic. We want people to get informed about why Cyprus is ideal for investing and find out all the benefits of it.

We envision ourselves as an empowering member of the business community, which helps leaders and shapers of business and finance in Cyprus with corporate governance matters.

At CX Financia can help you with:

• the establishment and management of companies,
• provide financial services licensing, consulting and compliance services and a range of other corporate-related services such as legal support, GDPR audit and consultancy and international tax planning services.

Contact our team of experts, we will be glad to support you.