2023 Doing Business in Cyprus (UK Edition)
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DOING BUSINESS C YPRUS<br />
26<br />
UNITED KINGDOM EDITION<br />
foster<strong>in</strong>g more opportunities for bus<strong>in</strong>ess angels and venture capitalists look<strong>in</strong>g to<br />
<strong>in</strong>vest risk capital <strong>in</strong> exchange for equity <strong>in</strong> promis<strong>in</strong>g bus<strong>in</strong>ess ideas. In addition,<br />
a key attraction for high-tech companies is the <strong>Cyprus</strong> Intellectual Property (IP) Box<br />
Regime, which provides a competitive maximum tax rate of 2.5% on <strong>in</strong>come earned<br />
from IP assets. <strong>Cyprus</strong>’ regime also applies to a wider range of <strong>in</strong>come compared to<br />
other European schemes, most of which restrict benefits to <strong>in</strong>come from patents and<br />
supplementary patent certificates.<br />
The year 2022 saw more global names <strong>in</strong>vest <strong>in</strong> <strong>Cyprus</strong>, with European digital<br />
neobank<strong>in</strong>g platform Revolut, valued at US$33 billion, becom<strong>in</strong>g the first entity to<br />
receive approval as a crypto-asset service provider from the <strong>Cyprus</strong> regulator. The<br />
authorisation enables Revolut to offer crypto services to its 17 million customers <strong>in</strong> the<br />
EEA out of a new crypto-asset hub <strong>in</strong> <strong>Cyprus</strong>. Revolut said its choice was down to the<br />
sophisticated regulatory regime of the country, which has already attracted the likes<br />
of Crypto.com, eToro and BitPanda. A lead<strong>in</strong>g US consumer services and applications<br />
software provider, TangoMe, also announced plans to launch offices <strong>in</strong> <strong>Cyprus</strong>. The<br />
<strong>in</strong>ternationally renowned tech company, with an annual revenue of around US$350<br />
million, will establish a strong presence <strong>in</strong> Limassol with a sizeable number of<br />
employees relocat<strong>in</strong>g to <strong>Cyprus</strong>.<br />
Another project set to boost <strong>Cyprus</strong> as a regional telecoms and data hub, was<br />
lead<strong>in</strong>g telecoms provider Cyta sign<strong>in</strong>g a €850 million venture with Greece and Saudi<br />
Arabia for the construction of the East Med Corridor (EMC) – a global digital highway<br />
l<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g Europe with Asia. In addition, the modernisation of state <strong>in</strong>frastructure and<br />
speed<strong>in</strong>g up the adoption of cloud services <strong>in</strong> <strong>Cyprus</strong> were key targets of the sign<strong>in</strong>g<br />
of a Memorandum of Understand<strong>in</strong>g with Amazon Web Services (AWS) <strong>in</strong> 2022, a<br />
collaboration that will open up a new era of opportunities.<br />
EXPANDING EDUCATION AND R&I<br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> is develop<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong>to a regional<br />
education and knowledge hub with<br />
the rapid expansion of tertiary education<br />
and its universities steadily climb<strong>in</strong>g up<br />
global rank<strong>in</strong>gs. The country has already<br />
established synergies with <strong>in</strong>ternational<br />
universities, most notably the University<br />
of Nicosia launch<strong>in</strong>g the island’s first<br />
degree programme <strong>in</strong> medic<strong>in</strong>e <strong>in</strong><br />
collaboration with St George’s Medical<br />
School at the University of London,<br />
and University of Central Lancashire –<br />
IDirect <strong>in</strong>vestments <strong>in</strong><br />
<strong>Cyprus</strong> showed a<br />
150% <strong>in</strong>crease<br />
<strong>in</strong> the first half of 2022
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