Daily Press Review - 28/2/2019

State guarantees at €1.9b in 2018

The Central Bank of Cyprus announced the value of loans for which the state is a guarantor, without including the state guarantees that were given to Hellenic Bank by the government last July after the Bank absorbed the “good” part of the Co-op. Phileleftheros’ sources, said that the agreement between the two parties is still open and since the sum could not be accurately taken into account, it couldn’t be included in the data. Initially, there were speculations that due to the Hellenic Bank state guarantees, the amount of state guarantees in the end of 2018 would increase by €2.5b, something which didn’t happen. Last year, state guarantees were reduced by €31.4 compared with 2017. In 2018, total state guarantees amounted to €1.9b, while their number was reduced from 4.500 to 4.238 compared to last year. From the sum of loans guaranteed by the state, Local Authorities have a total of €286.3m in loans, (115 local authorities of which 86 are municipalities and 29 are municipal councils). Furthermore, 3.957 natural persons received loans guaranteed by the state, amounting to €162.9m, while 72 public bodies have loans guaranteed by the state with €916.3K. The data also includes €36.5m in loans which the state guaranteed right before the Co-op was liquidated. The article goes on to report that 1.230 loans guaranteed by the state (€111.6m) are non-performing loans.



Public finances under pressure from €4.6b in state guarantees

As above. The article also mentions that Total deposits in the Cyprus banking system amounted to €47.5 billion in January marking a net reduction of €342.7 million compared to December, according to CBC. Furthermore, total loans in January exhibited a net increase of €115 million, compared with a net increase of €166,8 million in December 2018.



Union of Cyprus Communities intervenes for Co-op properties

Haravgi reports that the Union of Cyprus Communities sent a letter to the President of the Republic with regards to the sell-off of the Cyprus Cooperative Bank’s properties. The Association calls the President to intervene so as to reverse the decisions on the Co-op’s properties that were sold to third parties, as well as to stop the sale of other buildings. Furthermore, it called on the President to implement everything that he promised in his announcement in August 2018, that “these buildings and other assets will be returned to the communities so that they can be used by them”. The Association’s interventions is related to the recent sales of the Co-op’s properties in Lythrodontas and Sotiras to private businesses, even though the two Local Authorities had demanded that the properties should be granted to the communities, that will in turn use them for public benefit purposes.



Larnaca Port operation still unclear

According to the article, despite the fact that the Ministry of Transportation provided assurances for continuation of commercial operations including large loads at Larnaca port for the next five years, with possibility for another five year extension, the Cyprus Shipping Association says that this refers to promises rather than assurances. In her reply, Minister of Transportation assured the Association that that imports and exports, including large loads will continue through the Larnaca port. The Association replied warning with a timetable for dynamic measures if they are not provided with clear safeguards.



Savvas Perdios: Radical changes in tourism branding

Deputy Minister of Tourism, Savvas Perdios, announced the new guidelines for the strategy to promote the upgrading of tourism and the Cypriot tourist product. Speaking at the 41st annual meeting organized by PASYXE, Mr. Perdios referred to the need to implement a National Tourism Strategy. At the same time, he analysed the priorities and actions of the Deputy Ministry in this direction for the period 2019 - 2020, inter alia for re-branding, redefining, targeting based on new trends in tourist categories, expansion into new markets, and the promotion of Cyprus as alternative tourism destination beyond the slogan of "sun and sea".



Work and depression

Women who work more than 55 hours a week are at a higher risk of depression but this is not the case for men, according to a new UCL-led study with Queen Mary University of London. The study of over 20,000 adults, published today in the BMJ’s Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, found that after taking age, income, health and job characteristics into account, women who worked extra-long hours had 7.3% more depressive symptoms than women working a standard 35-40 week. Weekend working was linked to a higher risk of depression among both sexes. Women who worked for all or most weekends had 4.6% more depressive symptoms on average compared to women working only weekdays. Men who worked all or most weekends had 3.4% more depressive symptoms than men working only weekdays.  Depressive symptoms such as feeling worthless or incapable were measured using a self-completion validated general health questionnaire (GHQ-12).“ Women in general are more likely to be depressed than men, and this was no different in the study,” Weston said. “Independent of their working patterns, we also found that workers with the most depressive symptoms were older, on lower incomes, smokers, in physically demanding jobs, and who were dissatisfied at work.”



Low budget for prevention campaigns

According to the Ministry, every year the Ministry of Health sets certain priorities according to which public awareness campaigns are decided on every day issues. MP, Giorgos Perdikis has asked to be further updated on a €200,000 for 2019  budget line for the Ministry of Health with regards to awareness campaigns. Last year the Ministry organised campaigns for the prevention of accidents at children’s playgrounds, seminars on breastfeeding, programmes aiming to help people stop smoking, seminars on the consequences of electromagnetic radiation on children’s health, and workshops in order to develop national strategies on rheumatic diseases such as thalassaemia.

Larnaca also gets its own tower

Larnaca will also get its own small tower, which received a final approval from the environmental authority, and it is a matter of days for the planning permit to be issued in order to begin its construction. The development concerns a multi-storey residential building and parts for commercial use. It will consist of 20 floors and will be 70 metres high.



Minthis: Countdown to complete the luxurious and cosmopolitan resort

Construction for Minthis Resort by Pafilia Property Developers is being finalised. The complex development project, which will be built on the top of a hill and stretches over a vast area of 5 million square meters is expected to be completed in 15 months. Upon completion of the second phase of the project, Minthis will have a traditional square, a modern wellness center and new suites.



Meeting of Deputy Minister of Tourism with PEO

Deputy Minister of Tourism met with a delegation from PEO and discussed the positions of the Union for the most important issues that concern employees in the hotel industry. The General Secretary of the Union transferred his concern to the Deputy Minister regarding salaries in hotels since official data from the Statistical Service indicate that the wages in the hotel industry are the lowest in all the sectors of the economy. PEO’s General Secretary also expressed the Union's disagreement over the draft bill regarding hotels’ operation.



4-hour negotiation on GHS regulations

Phileleftheros reports that only 24 hours before the first phase of the GHS begins, backstage developments remain complicated. Today is considered as particularly important, because possibly the Parliament will take action in order to move forward with the procedure on passing the Regulations.  The Ministry of Health, HIO and CyMA completed their discussion on regulations on personal doctors recording some points of agreement, which they will present today at the House of Representatives. The article reports that according to a Deloitte announcement, members of CyMA’s leadership were aware of the Memorandum of Understanding which had caused a fight between the Medical Council and the Ministry of Health. This caused stirred up the situation further, with CyMA’s press representative saying that he will set the issue for discussion with the Board, so as to take decisions.  The article adds that all eyes are now turned to the House Health Committee, which will meet today in order to discuss on the Regulations for personal doctors. Yesterday’s meeting between the HIO and CyMA gives the Committee the right to decide whether they will proceed to complete the procedure without the stakeholder’s presence, thereby gaining valuable time, because many more Regulations are pending with regards to the GHS’ first phase. Yesterday’s meeting lasted 4 hours and 26 Regulation articles on personal doctors were studied and was agreed that the agreements as well as the disagreements that were recorded will be given to the Parliament, which will decide how to proceed.



Changes in health funds

Politis reports that an agreement that will be signed by social partners today, answers a series of questions for employees who are health fund beneficiaries. The agreement came after an initiative of Employers and Industrialists Federation (OEV) and will be signed by the OEV’s leadership and the Cyprus Chamber Of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) as well as trade unions SEK, PEO and DEOK and ensures that people who are currently health fund beneficiaries, will not be left hanging after the GHS is fully implemented. The agreement clarifies that the specific health funds will continue to operate until the GHS is fully implemented, that is until June 2020 so as to avoid double contributions as well as double healthcare coverage. In this framework, the agreement provides for the reduction of employees and employers’ contributions by 50% from June 2019 onwards (until primary healthcare in the GHS starts) and the full termination of contributions to fund from June 2020, when the GHS will be expanded to cover out-patient and in-patient care.

 

X-ray of problems in all hospitals

Haravgi reports that state hospitals are facing many problems and that the Organisation of State Health Services (OKYPY) has been recording them in an effort to solve them. General Director of the Organisation, Nikos Polyzos said that the result of the work will be evident to the patients in the 2-3 months. In particular, Mr Polyzos noted that before Easter €5m will be given for biomedicine technology and specifically for the installation of equipment such as cardiographs, CT scans and MRI scans which are not currently provided by hospitals. Furthermore, with the complementary budget, more than 40 people will be hired as paramedical staff. As it concerns primary healthcare, Polyzos said that it still quite early to announce the 150 doctors that will be called to take over as personal doctors. He noted that OKYPY will be the one joining the HIO and not each doctor individually. He referred to the Health Centres and the €300K that will be given to repair the infrastructure of current Health Centres.