Mr Vice-President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the Ministry of Finance.
This is truly an important occasion as we are able to make another step in the direction of the recovery and growth of the Cyprus economy.
In fact, I would say that this very successful scheme of financing of SMEs and Mid-Caps, which we have inaugurated a year and a half ago, has been instrumental in lifting our economy out of the long recession of the previous years. The growth rate of 1.6% achieved during 2015 shows that we are on the right track.
So let me take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the EIB for its strong and decisive support.
Mr Vice-President,
Thank you for your commitment, thank you to your team for their excellent co-operation, thank you all for being here.
And let me assure you that from our side we remain fully committed in maintaining the reform effort and the fiscal discipline long after the Troika goes. In this way we shall fully re-establish investor confidence and we shall keep Cyprus firmly on the track of recovery and growth.
