The House of Representatives late last night approved legislation providing for state support to the island’s second largest lender.
The item was passed with 43 votes for, none against, and three abstentions.
THE Popular Bank said yesterday it was in talks with the finance ministry and the Central Bank about state guarantees to raise fresh capital after being battered by the Greek debt write-down.
Major oil and gas companies such as Russia’s Novatec, Italy’s ENI, France’s Total, and Malaysia’s Petronas are among 15 firms and consortiums that are seeking to carry out exploratory drilling for gas deposits off southern Cyprus, the island’s commerce minister said Friday, despite Turkey’s strong objections.
Cyprus news
Cyprus 40th in Report
CYPRUS was ranked 40th worldwide in the World Bank’s annual DoingBusinessReport.
The results of the report were presented yesterday by the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency (CIPA).
The report measures the ease of doing business in 183 countries, ranking them in 10 areas of business regulation, to determine how conducive they are to starting and operating a local firm in each country.
Last year Cyprus was ranked 49th and 15th among the EU countries, compared to 16th the previous year.
Source: www.cyprus-mail.com
January 18, 2012
read more