The government serves big economic interests domestically and exposes Cyprus internationally

Cyprus on the black list of the OECD

Statement by AKEL-Left-New Forces Parliamentary Representative Y.Loucaides

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 18 October 2018, Nicosia

The World Bank, in a report it released a month ago, noted the Republic of Cyprus’ slump in the fight against corruption. Continued foreign press reports have for a few years been implicating Cyprus in money laundering scandals. Now, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has also placed Cyprus on the black list along with 20 other countries because of its Passport Policy.

The responsibility lies entirely with the government, which diligently shuts its ears and keeps silent about what is being written and spoken and which expose Cyprus internationally. The government not only has done nothing, to address the problem but through its inaction and reluctance, is perpetuating and nurturing it.

The Anastasiades-DISY government had inherited a Passport policy that began in other eras and to serve other needs applied with concrete strict criteria and terms, and has transformed it into a business from which specific big interests and establishment forces greatly profit. On the basis of this business, a bubble of huge dimensions is being created in the price of properties and rents, which Limassol citizens are already paying for and which when it will break out will lead the Cyprus economy to new adventures.

The government, evidently serving specific powerful interests benefiting from this situation, is doing nothing. That’s why it has huge responsibilities both for the Republic of Cyprus being exposed internationally and for what will follow.