Cutting red tape to aid business

IN LINE with European policy, Cyprus is moving to cut bureaucratic procedures hindering the growth of businesses.

The regulatory environment in which businesses operate influences their competitiveness and their ability to grow and create jobs

“It is well-known that the ever-increasing bureaucracy problem in Cyprus adversely affects people and businesses,” Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis said. “Improving the regulatory framework triggered the promotion of further structural changes needed to be done to upgrade and improve the country’s public sector to better serve people and businesses.”

The European Commission is committed to developing a regulatory environment for business that is simple, understandable, effective and enforceable.

Cyprus is in the third phase of the program to advance Better Regulation, which is expected to be complete by August.

The current phase involves measuring the administrative costs in eight national sectors: Civil Registry and Migration, Agriculture, Internal revenues, Company Registrar, Environment, Customs, VAT and Social Insurance.

The task has been assumed by KPMG Limited, one of the leading providers of audit, tax and advisory services on the island, who will then submit suggestions on cutting administrative burden in those areas.

According to the European Commission, administrative burden designates costs specifically linked to information that businesses would not collect and provide in the absence of a legal obligation.

Cyprus is committed to cutting administrative burden by 20 per cent by 2012.

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.