​Joint Statement by the Business Leaders of Cyprus

Following the Cyprus Peace Dividend Conference in Brussels 6-7 March 2014, business leaders of Cyprus issued a joint statement.

Joint Statement by the Business Leaders of Cyprus

FOLLOWING THE CYPRUS PEACE DIVIDEND CONFERENCE IN BRUSSELS

7 March 2014

We the senior business leaders of Cyprus have just spent two days together in Brussels at the conference entitled the “Cyprus Peace Dividend Revisited”, which was organized and hosted by the PRIO Cyprus Centre, with the support of the Foreign Ministries of Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway and which took place in the presence of the negotiators from the two communities.

Our companies are some of the biggest employers on both sides of the island and operate in all the key sectors.

We much appreciate the opportunity to provide feedback on the preliminary findings of PRIO Cyprus Centre’s upcoming Cyprus Peace Dividend Revisited report, authored by Fiona Mullen, Alexander Apostolides and Mustafa Besim, to be published in the coming weeks.

We are convinced that a solution of the Cyprus problem will benefit all sectors of the economy and will bring gains for Cypriots on both sides of the island, bringing significant growth to companies and creating jobs for many of our unemployed compatriots.

We welcome the Joint Declaration issued by our leaders on 11 February and the Joint Statement issued by the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce on 5 March. We stand ready to support our leaders and the Chambers in their efforts.

During the sector-by-sector discussion sessions, we brainstormed on some of the planning that we, as business leaders, need to undertake in order to maximize the significant economic benefits that a solution will bring. Our aim is to support the efforts of the negotiators and to complement the excellent work already being undertaken by the Chambers.

To help us plan for a united Cyprus, we agreed to continue our cooperation in a number of sector-based focus groups, under the overall direction of the Chambers.

We are thankful to the PRIO Cyprus Centre for facilitating meetings with representatives of the business communities and to the Nordic countries for their support.

As business leaders, we know that when an opportunity presents itself, it must be grasped with both hands, carefully nurtured and planned in detail.

Let us grasp that opportunity for Cyprus.