President Nikos Christodoulides heads to the UN General Assembly in New York on Saturday following a push for foreign investment at a stopover in Toronto.
According to government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis, meetings have been lined up with Jordanian King Abdullah II, Greek Prime Minister Kyriacos Mitsotakis, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Crown Prince of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah, and with executives from Chevron, ExxonMobil and Amazon.
The Cypriot president will address the 80th session of the UNGA on September 24, after which on September 27, he will attend a tripartite meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar.
Meanwhile, during his stay in Canada, Christodoulides met with billionaire Prem Watsa, founder of Fairfax Financial.
The president also participated in a roundtable discussion with Canadian business people and investors invited by Fairfax, during which he presented the comparative advantages of Cyprus as a quality investments destination. Namely, the country's strategic geographic location, stable tax and investment framework, resilience of the financial sector, easy access to highly skilled workforce and dynamic growth prospects in cutting-edge sectors, said Letymbiotis.
During a working lunch, Christodoulides highlighted Cyprus’ membership of the EU, but also proximity to the Middle East.
“By investing in Cyprus you are investing in a market of 450 million people and at the same time, in a large market in the wider Middle East", he said.
The president highlighted that the Cyprus economy was based mainly on services and tourism but is also expanding in the banking sector, investments, real estate, shipping, higher education and energy.
Fairfax founder and CEO Prep Watsa said: "When you have a leader of a country who is so friendly to entrepreneurship, his country cannot but do very well, in the economic sector.”
Christodoulides also pointed to Cyprus’ cooperation with India, including in terms of investments in the defence sector along with Indian companies.
“The meeting highlights the potential for further attracting investments from international companies such as Fairfax, in the financial sector but also in strategic sectors of the Cypriot economy such as technology, renewable energy sources, and infrastructure,” said Letymbiotis in a post on 'X'.
The spokesperson noted that Fairfax is one of the most important international investors with an active presence in Cyprus, as the main shareholder of Eurobank, which recently acquired Hellenic Bank in one of the largest foreign investments in the country in recent years.
