Having completed 24 years of presence in the Cypriot market, McDonald's restaurants are preparing this year to increase, in a time of coronavirus, the number of stores that maintain nationwide. Speaking on the radio show Insider, the general manager of the management company Family Restaurants Andreou Co. Ltd, Renos Andreou, revealed the places where the company will be expanded. “Today, there are 18 McDonald's restaurants throughout free Cyprus. This year, we plan to open four new restaurants, namely at the Metropolis Mall in Larnaca, in an area next to Jumbo, also in Larnaca, in the discount village of Kokkinotrimithia and in the old port of Limassol. At the same time, at the beginning of 2022, our new restaurant will operate in Anthoupolis, in the municipal borders of Lakatamia “, he said. However, McDonald's is worth noting that, despite the coronavirus pandemic and the closure of some of their stores for quite some time, they did not proceed, according to the company, with any redundancies.
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Revolut Bank in Cyprus
Revolut, the global financial platform with more than 15 million customers worldwide, launched its specialized European banking license in Cyprus on Wednesday (February 17th). This means that, now, the 160,000 customers of the company in the country will enjoy protection in their deposits, in case they upgrade their accounts in Revolut Bank for additional services, through the deposit guarantee system. Revolut is now considered the fastest growing fintech company in Europe. To date, the Revolut Group has raised about $ 1 billion in funding rounds and its most recent value estimate was $ 5.5 billion.
Reconstruction of old GSP
The Municipality of Nicosia announced the tender for the renovation of the old GSP. This is a very important project in the heart of Nicosia, which will greatly enhance the effort to develop and upgrade the historic center of the capital. The renovation of the old GSP aims to create an urban square, green spaces and recreation areas, as well as the construction of an underground parking lot with a capacity of 570 vehicles. The municipality, however, states that the underground parking is expected to serve both the above uses and the wider area of the urban center, including its shopping center within the city walls. It is considered crucial for the revitalization of old Nicosia and for the enhancement of sustainable mobility, through the use of Nicosia Minibuses, the starting point of which is located within the project. The budget of the project amounts to 19,720,000 euros, plus VAT, and includes the construction of the project and 10 years of maintenance. The works are expected to last 24 months. The project, however, can be co-financed by the EU Cohesion Fund, the state budget and the Municipality of Nicosia, within the programming period 2014-2020.
Tourists with dropper
Arrivals of tourists showed a very large decrease in January 2020, as shown by data announced by the Statistical Service. Arrivals in January 2021 amounted to only 3,889 tourists, showing a decrease of 95.5%, compared to January 2020, during which 85,622 arrivals were recorded, as well as a decrease of 95.3% compared to January 2019 (with 81,970 arrivals). Arrivals from Greece were the main source of tourism for the month of January 2021, as they constituted 48.4% of the arrivals from Germany and arrivals by 8.8%, while other countries accounted for smaller percentages. According to the data, the purpose of travel in January 2021 was for 11.9% of tourists the holidays, for 26.3% the visit to friends or relatives and for 61.8% business. Respectively, for January 2020, 57.6% visited Cyprus for holidays, 22.9% for visiting friends or relatives and 19.2% for business reasons. It will be interesting, however, to see how this year will end for tourism and whether all those who say that it is a given that this year will be better than last year will be confirmed. Ίδωμεν.
At least New Zealand…
Thailand was downgraded to Category B, Rwanda to Category C, but six countries (Algeria, Morocco, Montenegro, Serbia, Uruguay and Japan) were demoted to the category by the Epidemiological Surveillance Unit, which re-evaluated the different countries in relation to Covid-19 disease. It is worth noting, however, that only three countries, namely Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, are now in category A, ie in low-risk countries. Well done again, as I really wanted to spend my weekend in New Zealand.
SuperHome in Lakatamia
On February 25, according to information in the column, SuperHome Lakatamias will open its gates to the public. We remind you that it is located near the MALL OF NICOSIA and in fact it is the facility that until a few months ago was the store of “Homemate”. It will be the largest SuperHome in Cyprus, with an area of 7,500 sq.m., while a parrot revealed in the column that they are studying their expansion in the market of Paralimni and soon there will be developments.
The celebrations for the recession and the political leaders
The government will continue to support the economy by all means, said in a written statement the Minister of Finance, Konstantinos Petridis. On the occasion of the Eurostat announcement, according to which the contraction of Cyprus' GDP in 2020 was limited to 5.1%, he points out that it is “significantly lower than any forecasts made during the year. The reduction of the Cypriot GDP for 2020 is also significantly smaller, compared to the Eurozone as a whole (-6.8%) but also to the European Union (-6.4%) “, he adds.
According to the minister, “the most real facts now confirm both the effectiveness of the government's support policies for companies and employees, as well as the resilience of the Cypriot economy.” It also notes that the growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2020, compared to the third quarter, was 1.4% “which is the third best growth rate in the Eurozone, which as a whole recorded a negative growth rate of the order of -0.6% “.
The column, however, on the occasion of the government's celebrations for the 2020 recession, tried to enter for another week in the brains of well-known personalities of the political, state and sports life of the place and reveals what they wanted to say and did not say about this theme.
Analytically:
Nikos Anastasiadis, President of the Republic of Cyprus: If I had not interrupted the naturalization program, things would have been even better, Socrates.
Averof Neophytou, president of DISY: The recession of APOEL was much bigger, however.
Andros Kyprianou, secretary general AKEL: As AKEL, we will downgrade the credit rating of the Republic of Cyprus.
Nikolas Papadopoulos, president of DIKO: If they gave the files to the auditor general, the recession would be in double digits.
Marinos Sizopoulos, president of EDEK: I am only interested in EDEK not having a recession.
Giorgos Lillikas, president of the Citizens' Alliance: It is the same as APOEL celebrating because they lost 2-1 to Omonia, instead of 3-0.
Eleni Theocharous, President of Solidarity: When the time comes to pay the bill, the citizens will run with their eurozone, Mr. Socrates.
Charalambos Theopemptou, president of the Ecologists' Movement: The recession was when we collaborated with Lillikas in the previous European elections.
Christos Christou, president of ELAM: If we expelled all the illegal immigrants who steal our jobs, we would have growth.
Archbishop Chrysostomos B: Numbers prosper, not people. Do you want a priest to tell you?
Prodromos Petridis, president of APOEL: Where will Averoff get 7 consecutive firsts in electoral contests, then to talk about a recession in APOEL.
