Cyprus To Receive A Further 235m Euros In Pre-Accession Investment

by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Brussels

15 October 2003

The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's long-term financing institution, has completed a series of finance agreements with Cyprus totaling 235 million euros. The money is to be invested in a number of projects, mainly in the information technology and education sectors.

The funds are provided under the Bank's current 8.5 billion euros pre-accession lending facility, which runs up to the end of 2003. Pre-accession lending is aimed at projects that will support the integration of acceding countries with the EU. A particular emphasis is being given to environmental protection, as well as communications infrastructure, industrial competitiveness and regional development. Cyprus has so far received 580 million euros under this facility.

Some 35 million euros - representing the first tranche of an overall approved financing of 70 million euros for the project - is being made available to the Republic of Cyprus for the Cypriot Ministry of Finance, Department of Information Technology Services (DITS).

This project is mainly driven by the priorities set in the Partnership Agreement concluded between Cyprus and the EU in 2000 and revised in 2002. It concerns investments in IT systems in various Cypriot government departments, encompassing investments in physical networks and hardware, and the development of specialized software systems.

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