By Aline Davidian
PRESIDENTIAL candidate George Iacovou yesterday denounced president Clerides’ five years in office as being the worst in the economic history of Cyprus.
Nominally independent Iacovou is backed by left-wing Akel and centre-right Diko.
Speaking at an economics seminar yesterday, Iacovou criticised the Clerides administration for what he said was its lack of planning and ineptitude that had led to a slump in the island’s economy.
In defence of his claims, Iacovou produced statistics showing a severe crisis in the clothing industry, which had led to the closure of 60 per cent of factories, while the shoe industry had suffered even more.
But he reserved his harshest criticism for the “slump in tourism”, previously the most successful sector of the economy.
“The problems of the tourism industry… have been tackled with half measures and contradictory policies, resulting in a revenue decrease and causing problems to tourism-dependant sectors of the economy,” he said.
Iacovou said over 5,300 small businesses had gone bust, and the national debt had increased from £2.4 million in 1982 to £3.8 million in 1998.
He then turned to employment, saying almost 11,000 people were now unemployed, with the worst hit being women and young people.
“Whilst in 1992 there was almost full employment with only 1.8 per cent unemployment, we find ourselves in 1996 and 1997 with double the unemployment – 3.5 per cent.”
Iacovou’s answer to these economic woes would be two-pronged plan: increasing the rate of economic development through state development policies whilst encouraging, steering and advising the private sector.
Amplifying on this, Iacovou said his government would regulate the employment of foreign workers, provide incentives to support Cypriot businesses and carry out various EU-formulated programmes.
Earlier in the day, Finance Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou had defended his policy, saying Iacovou was “misinformed” and would lead the country into “terrible episodes” if elected.
He challenged Iacovou to a public debate on the economy, saying the independent candidate was giving out wrong information – particularly in the numbers of unemployed.
He said the unemployed in fact numbered only 10,000, while VAT was generating only £9,000 in revenue, not the tens of thousands of pounds claimed by Iacovou.
“All these things prove the public is being swayed to give its vote to a candidate… who does not know the Cypriot reality,” said Christodoulou.
But Iacovou had little time for the Finance Minister’s challenge: when Christodoulou became a presidential candidate, he said, then he would agree to join him in a debate on the economy.
