Talat: Cyprus donors’ meeting on April 15

MEHMET ALI Talat said yesterday an international donors’ conference for the island would be held on April 15, six days before Cypriots vote on a reunification plan.

Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders are now locked in almost daily UN-sponsored talks aimed at ending the 30-year division of their east Mediterranean island.

“The European Union is organising this conference to attract capital, especially to help displaced people,” Talat told a news conference.

The Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ said participants would include the European Investment Bank, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the OECD.

Talat said the peace talks had run into an array of problems, but he added: “With the help of the United Nations it could be possible to bring the two sides closer in the future.”
According to various economic assessments, compensation to those losing property as a result of the solution of the Cyprus problem is estimated in the region of £10 billion while the cost of reconstruction could reach £4 billion.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.