Statements by the General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL S.Stefanou after the meeting with Cyprus Employers & Industrialists Federation (OEB)

 

 2 March 2022, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia

I would like to thank OEB, the President and the Board of the Federation, for responding to our request to meet to discuss the Cyprus economy, its prospects and problems and, above all, the need to create and develop a new developmental model that gives prospects to the country, but also to society, which needs a strong economy that can also support the welfare state.

Inevitably, today’s discussion has been focused on the situation as it has evolved due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the fact that the war is really causing problems to the global and European economy and especially in Cyprus, bearing in mind that Cyprus has strong economic, trade, tourism, energy and other relations with both Russia and Ukraine.

As the President of OEB said, we discussed various ramifications and consequences of the war in Ukraine and exchanged views on how these consequences could be addressed as far as possible.

It was really a very useful and constructive discussion.

I would like to inform you that today I have sent a letter to the President of the Republic, calling on him to convene a session of the Council of Political Leaders to a meeting together with the relevant Ministers, Deputy Ministers, relevant Departments and involved parties to discuss and reflect on how we can tackle this difficult situation as it is evolving. In the letter to the President, I reiterated AKEL’s willingness, according to our own capabilities, to contribute so that we are ready and prepared to face any consequences.

With regard to the war in Ukraine, where the first victims are as usual the common people, AKEL has today announced the launching of a campaign – as part of the Republic of Cyprus’ campaign – to collect various items to send to Ukraine to support its people, with whom we stand in solidarity.

We have agreed with OEB that we will continue this dialogue that we have been having on the Cyprus economy, because we believe that in this way we all become wiser and contribute, even with our disagreements – although I must say that on many issues we have had a convergence of views – to help meet the challenges of the times and open up a new perspective for our country.

QUESTION: Have you categorized the expected impacts? Can you mention some impacts which we need to prepare for?

SS: The Economic Research Bureau of AKEL has elaborated a preliminary document on the predicted impacts and consequences by category.

Of course, you understand that there are things that can be foreseen and things that will emerge as a result of the content of the sanctions imposed by both the EU and other organisations.

So we will have before us a field that is more stable, that we can foresee, although we cannot foresee the depth of these consequences. For example, we cannot predict how far fuel prices will go up. There are different approaches. There are the very pessimistic and the less pessimistic ones. It will depend on how long the situation in Ukraine continues. It is for this very reason that I believe that there should be a discussion to look at the various scenarios and, depending on these scenarios, we must prepare and act quickly so that we have answers to the various problems and the various challenges that will arise.

There are issues, in addition to fuel, regarding grain, energy, tourism which are evidently affected, financial issues. I would say that in many, many spheres of life Cyprus will be adversely affected and this should motivate us to address the problems and see how in various ways we can help society and the economy.