Cyprus

Cyprus is a high income country with a GDP of USD 24.96 billion and is both located in Europe and a member of the European Union. The economy of Cyprus is heavily based in the service sector, which accounts for approximately 85.5% of GDP and comprises primarily tourism, real estate and financial services. As a major component of the service sector in Cyprus, the tourism industry saw almost four million tourist arrivals in 2019 and accounted for 15% of the country’s GDP. Further investment into the tourism industry is currently being made through several development projects, such as a 619 million USD luxury hotel and casino planned for opening in 2021. The Government of Cyprus is hoping to expand the tourism sector to 25% of annual GDP and established the Deputy Ministry of Tourism in 2018 to help achieve this goal. Furthermore, the Government of Cyprus has developed and recently enacted the National Tourism Strategy 2030, which outlines plans for the sustainable development of the tourism industry in Cyprus from 2020–2030. Aside from tourism, the industrial and agricultural sectors of Cyprus account for 12.5% and 2% of GDP, respectively.

Despite being heavily affected by the financial crisis of the late 2000’s, the economy of Cyprus has rebounded and had its investment-grade status re-awarded in 2018. Cyprus also supports a healthy startup ecosystem due to the following factors: numerous local startup accelerators, startup support programs led by local academic institutions, investment into technology research by the Government of Cyprus and private partners, and tax incentives for startups and SMEs to enable rapid business growth. Nonetheless, some of the post-crisis economic growth has come at the potential cost of long-term sustainable development, as recent explorations have discovered new undersea oil and gas deposits the Government of Cyprus would like to utilize. The Government of Cyprus hopes to begin exploiting the newly found oil and gas reserves in 2024–2025 and has already begun to invest in the expansion of port facilities to account for the planned growth of the offshore oil and gas industry in Cyprus