Cyprus' reputation as a reliable investment destination is directly linked to the competitiveness of the country's economy, President, Nikos Christodoulides, said on Monday, noting at the same time that more powers will be given to the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

The President was speaking during the delivery of the Commission's Annual Report for 2023 by the Chairman and Members of CySEC, at the Presidential Palace, in the presence of Deputy Minister to the President, Irene Piki.

President Christodoulides, addressing the Chairman and the Members of CySEC, said that "I am following your interventions, you are doing an excellent job, so we will give you more work."

For us, he said, "the supervisory mechanisms are directly intertwined with the great effort we are making to strengthen the economy and the competitiveness of our country, but also within the framework of the rebranding (of Cyprus) that we have already started."

To this end, the President continued, "we will give you more powers as a single supervisory mechanism and we are here to strengthen you as much as necessary to enable you to respond to this new role."

President Christodoulides also pointed out that the reputation of Cyprus as a reliable investment destination is directly linked to the competitiveness of the country's economy.

For his part, the CySEC Chairman, George Theocharides, handing over the Report to President Christodoulides, thanked him "for his continued support to the work of CySEC", adding that "there is a healthy growth of the capital market sector which is what we expect."

He also said that "we have several challenges ahead of us, there are a number of important European Directives and Regulations that we have to be ready to implement them immediately." Theocharides further explained that there is an important Regulation that has to do with the regulation of the cryptocurrency sector, which comes into force in the European Union from 1 January 2025.

He noted that the two major industries are the investment company sector and the investment fund sector, explaining that in the investment fund sector there are over 300 entities under CySEC oversight. "We have around €10 billion assets under this sector, €2.6 billion of these are investments in the Cypriot economy. They are investments in different projects, in different entities, in different companies in the Cypriot economy. This is an alternative form of financing which the Cypriot economy needs," Theocharides added.

During the meeting, the issue of promoting and improving financial literacy was raised, which the President described as "a very important issue."

CNA/ZSO/EPH/2024

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY