Finance Minister Harris Georgiades and Bank of Cyprus` CEO John Patrick Hourican said that the selection of the Bank`s Vice President Wilbur Ross in the position of US Secretary of Commerce by President -elected Donald Trump was a positive development.
The Minister spoke of an excellent prospect that show how important was for the Bank primarily and for Cyprus to bring in “such important and credible investors of the calibre of Ross”.
“Do not expect favours, that is not how politics works, but it is a very positive signal and obviously a good channel of communication between Cyprus and the US administration”, said Georgiades speaking to higher education students, in an event organized by the Bank of Cyprus.
On his part Hourican said that Ross knows and understands Cyprus, because he has invested in Cyprus with €1 billion and particularly in the Bank of Cyprus, in the largest ever foreign direct investment in the country. As he said, the man who led and made this investment a success, who is a friend of Cyprus and believes in Cyprus and bought the story of Cyprus is going to be sitting at the world`s most powerful cabinet table and that can only be good.
The Minister of Finance also referred to the Cyprus problem, reiterating the need for correct and reliable arrangements for public finances, in order to ensure those requirements that will actually confirm the extremely positive prospects arising from the reunification of the country.
Hourican also said he was excited by the prospect of solving the Cyprus problem, but emphasized the need for good planning.
Asked about the crisis in Italy and whether bail-in should be adopted as a rescue tool, Georgiades said that deposits and bonds haircut of 2013 in Cyprus was an inevitable decision. ” From then on there is a common EU framework which should and I predict will be applied from now on”, he said.
On the issue, Hourican said that it is really important that there is an equality of treatment across Europe in order to ensure that small nations don`t feel disadvantaged. “Italy is the 3rd largest economy in the Eurozone, the fourth largest in Europe, 8th largest economy in the world and a consequences of Italy having significant economic difficulty will be ricochet and felt across a much wider dimension”, he said.