The Troika didn’t raise the issue of the privatization of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority

Statement by AKEL Political Bureau member and MP A.Damianou

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 24 September 2018, Nicosia

Within the framework of the meeting of the House of Representative’s Committee on Financial and Budgetary Affairs with representatives of the Troika, or the institutions as they are being called, we raised a number of issues and concerns:

1. While growth is being recorded, this doesn’t solve income and other wider social inequalities.
2. Labour costs (namely wages) have fallen sharply since the crisis but profit margins have risen.
3. Social conditions are very difficult for the majority of the people. 215,000 people live around or below the poverty line.
4. Growth itself is circumstantial, if not opportunistic instead of sustainable, and the government doesn’t seem to have a strategic plan that should lead to a fairer distribution of the wealth produced.
5. It is obvious that the government has handled the issue of the Cooperative Bank in an erroneous and damaging way.
6. The announcements made for reforms in the justice system and public service are slow and most important of all, the implementation of the National Health Scheme is facing serious difficulties, primarily due to the government’s stand.

We note that at no point during the meeting, did the Troika raise the issue of the privatization of the semi-governmental Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CYTA), which the Anastasiades-DISY government is dogmatically seeking.