Thus, the Income Tax Law has been amended so that an individual, who does not remain in any of their state for one or more periods which altogether exceed 183 days in the same tax year and who is not tax resident in any other state for the same tax year, be considered to be a tax resident of Cyprus, provided that the following conditions are cumulatively met:

a. He/she should remain in Cyprus for at least 60 days during the tax year

b. He/she should pursue any business in Cyprus and/or to work in Cyprus and/or to be a director in a company tax resident in Cyprus at any time during the tax year

c. He/she should maintain a permanent residence in Cyprus, which can be either owned or rented by him

It is clarified that an individual who cumulatively fulfills the above conditions is not considered as tax resident of Cyprus in the tax year, if in that year the exercise of any business and/or employment in Cyprus and/ or the holding of a post to a taxable person of Cyprus have ceased

For the purposes of calculating the days of stay in Cyprus:

a. the day of departure from Cyprus is considered as a day outside Cyprus

b. the day of arrival in Cyprus is considered as a day in Cyprus

c. arrival in Cyprus and departure from Cyprus within the same day is counted as one day in Cyprus

d. departure from Cyprus and return to Cyprus within the same day is counted as one day outside Cyprus

Thus, under the new provisions, an incentive is given to an individual who is not a tax resident in any other state for the same tax year to transfer his tax residence to Cyprus and to be taxed only on income from the activities the individual exercises in Cyprus

It is noted that for employment purposes in Cyprus with earnings in excess of Euro 100,000, an individual is allowed for an exemption from tax of 50% of the salary for a period of 10 years, which significantly reduces his income tax liability. At the same time, an individual is granted exemption from income tax or defense tax on dividends and interest received either in Cyprus or abroad, provided that such individual is considered as non - dom in Cyprus.

Source: www.goldnews.com.cy

West-Capella's Total-ENI is ready to start work on Plot 11.

These are one of the most important drilling to Cyprus, since its effect will catalytically affect Nicosia's energy plans.

In addition to the tremendous climate of research conducted by companies in the third round of licensing, the image on the international FA markets is expected to affect the retail segment of energy planning.

The tests and controls that begin today, according to official announcements and drilling will begin normally on the "Oneshofer" field of section 11. The start is calculated on July 16, 2017. According to the technical characteristics of its drilling, its depth, including the depth of the water that is around 1,700 meters, will reach between 3,500 and 4,000 meters.

The drilling, as planned, is expected to end after 2 or 3 months and the preliminary results are expected to be announced in September and October.

One of the world's largest steel producers and Russia's leading ferrous metal enterprise, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK), organized a photo exhibition on 7 July at the Hilton Park Hotel in Nicosia.

The exhibition included 40 informative photos, depicting the everyday life of the company's production units in the Urals mountains.

Employee portraits, moments from metallurgical processes and rare photographs from the company's first productive activities make up a unique collection. It is worth mentioning that the exhibition has traveled to several cities around the world, such as Brussels, Luxembourg, Paris and Malta.

In 2016, Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works went beyond EUR 32.5 million to implement social and charity projects, and by 2025 it intends to provide more than half a billion euros in actions related to environmental protection.

The new modern terminal consists of seven pods with an internal area of 7,000 square meters. Along with 24-hour availability the terminal offers integrated services including Home Call and Day Call handling capability, ensuring an improved customer experience.

SMT SHIPPING (Cyprus) Ltd has been selected as a winner of the 2017 CIPA International Investment Awards.

The award was presented to Anthonius J. Voorham, Owner SMT SHIPPING (Cyprus) Ltd. Over twenty-five years ago, Anthonius Voorham and three partners decided to create a ship-management company based on the principles of integrity, teamwork and quality. They quickly understood that Cyprus would be the ideal location for such a venture, given the countryâ€â„¢s well-developed shipping sector, its professional and educated labour force and its welcoming approach to international business.

SMT's reputation has grown steadily and it now has five offices and numerous business ventures throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The company has over 40 vessels under management, representing a variety of asset types. SMT has 34 local employees in Limassol, and this year it deepened its commitment to Cyprus by purchasing a new building in the Ayios Athanasios district of Limassol serves as its new headquarters.

Published by: www.goldnews.com.cy/

Cyprus signed a deal with Macau's Melco International and America's Hard Rock for the construction and operation of the biggest casino in Europe.

The casino resort estimated to cost 600 million euros and will be the first in the internationally recognized south of the Mediterranean holiday island.

The consortium has a 30 years licence to build an integrated casino resort in the southern coastal town of Limassol and set up four satellite casinos in other towns.

"In addition, the casino resort will include the largest casino in Europe, with 136 gaming tables and 1,200 gaming machines''

Energy Minister of Cyprus Mr. Lakkotrypis said that: Our goal is the improvement of incoming tourism, increasing arrivals, and average spending per capita, and also to see this contribute to the ongoing efforts to address the problem of seasonality in the Cypriot tourism industry, he said.

"Our other strategic objective was the creation of new jobs and additional tax revenue, supporting sectors that will be associated with the casino, and attracting further foreign investment.

British Virgin Islands

Introduction of Beneficial Ownership Secure Search System (BOSS system)

The BVI government has introduced (the "Act") a new legislation known as the Beneficial Ownership Secure Search System Act, 2017.

This new legislation was established on June 12, 2017 in order to allow the BVI to keep comply the obligation under the Exchange of Notes Agreement entered into with the UK back in April 2016.

The Exchange of Notes agreement allows for the sharing of beneficial ownership information between the BVI and the UK government. In order to comply with the terms of this agreement, the BVI government has implemented a system to house the relevant details of the beneficial owners of BVI Companies.

This system is referred to as the Beneficial Ownership Secure Search System (BOSS System), which enables the relevant BVI Authorities to have a searchable database with information on BVI Companies and their beneficial owners.

''The Act'' requires both the corporate and legal entity as well as the Registered Agent to identify the beneficial owners of each BVI company and insert this information into the BOSS System.

The deadline for all the Registered Agents to have the relevant details of beneficial owners placed into the BOSS System is until June 30, 2017 as the system will go live on July 1, 2017.

The BVI government 2019's goal for implementing this new regime is aimed towards meeting international standards as well as maintaining a reasonable balance between appropriate privacy and transparency.

Steve Greenlee, ExxonMobil Exploration Company president, analyze how the corporation is competing for the world's best oil and gas opportunities.  Also, he said "Our vision is that Cyprus will become an energy center and we hope to find enough natural gas, which will create the foundation for Cyprus to become an energy exporter" in his greeting at the event delegated by the Cyprus Delegation and ExxonMobil, the Consular House in Washington.

We are working until the signing of our contracts in April, starting our research, and we focus to them to have the best results. And we are happy about it. We have been in Cyprus for 60 years, you know us, we are glad we work there, we are good friends and this has helped us move forward with the new phase.

Prime minister of Cyprus Energy expressed the hope that large quantities of natural gas will be found in the Cypriot AOZ and that helps Cyprus as a country and the areas around it.

BRUSSELS/NICOSIA 

Cyprus could use its reserves of gas to meet up to 40 percent of Europe's additional gas needs over the next decade, helping to curb the European Unions reliance on Russia, the head of the island national gas firm said.

Europe has hopes that Eastern Mediterranean gas reserves can help to diversify its supply sources, as well as easing Cyprus's economic pain and potentially playing a role in healing the rift between the northern and southern parts of the island.

Charles Ellinas, executive chairman of the Cyprus National Hydrocarbons Company, said authorities would also push ahead with plans to develop a liquefaction plant to handle exports expected from 2020.

But gas from the region also comes with Middle East complications since the fields are split with Israel and Lebanon, two countries technically at war, and Turkey objects to ethnically split Cyprus tapping offshore reserves.

"I am very confident that Cyprus can provide Europe with 30 to 40 percent of its additional gas needs by 2025, Ellinas said as part of a series of interviews on the gas market.

Europe's gas demand is slightly below 500 million cubic meters a year, and Ellinas estimated the increase in demand by then to be around 100 billion cubic meters a year, although many analysts say demand will grow much more slowly.

The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that a mean 3.5 trillion cubic meters of recoverable gas lie in the eastern Mediterranean basin, as well as 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil.

Much of it lies trapped beneath the sea bed between Cyprus, Israel and Lebanon, including two vast gas fields off Israel which are some the largest discovered in the past decade.

So far, an estimated 200 bcm of natural gas worth $80 billion at current prices have been discovered in the Aphrodite gas field in Cypriot waters, but research suggests that developing the field would require large amounts of upfront investment into a project that may not deliver high returns.

Analysts say gas prices could fall after 2015 when a wave of new supplies become available in the United States, Australia and Africa.

Consultants estimate that the first phase of the LNG facility including infrastructure and one delivery chain will cost $6 billion. One option under consideration for funding the project was to use the LNG sales agreements as collateral.

"Given that the ownership of gas is, roughly speaking, two-thirds Cyprus and one third to oil companies, these LNG sales agreements are worth a large amount of money, which can provide security for loans, Ellinas said.

Ellinas said there was a chance that developing the gas could lead Turkey and Cyprus to bridge their 40-year differences. "One of the reasons Turkey has been putting so much pressure on everybody is because of their own needs (for gas), he said.

The gas windfall is one economic positive for Cyprus, where the terms of an EU and International Monetary Fund bailout will see the island's 17.5 billion euro ($22.51 billion) economy shrink by more than 8 percent this year.

Despite its close business ties with Cyprus in other sectors, Russia does not have any involvement in the islandâ€â„¢s attempts to develop its offshore energy sources.

"The Eastern Mediterranean is a secure, independent supply corridor. It's probably best if Russia is not involved, Ellinas said when asked about Russian involvement.

Cyprus has signed production sharing contracts with U.S. based Noble Energy, France Total, Italy's ENI and South Korea's KoGas.

Ellinas said Noble was scheduled to start appraisal drilling in June to verify initial findings of between 142 and 228 billion cubic meters of gas. Total was scheduled to start an exploratory drill in 2014, and ENI by 2015 or possibly earlier.

"I have seen the estimates of ENI and Total about how much gas there is in their blocks and it is quite significant, he said. Asked if the estimates were on a par with those of Noble, he said: "The short answer is yes.

Ellinas, who previously held senior positions at energy firm Mott MacDonald, said the construction of a pipeline to channel the gas to markets was impractical because of sea depths, but said that could not be ruled out in the future.

For now, the island will move ahead with plans to construct an LNG terminal, which will liquefy gas and ship it.

The terminal, which is expected to be built at Vassilikos, on the island's south, could handle gas from Israel and Lebanon as well as Cyprus, he said.

Pafilia Property Developers announces the start of the last phase of construction of the infrastructure projects and the extension of the supporting facilities of the luxurious resort, Minthis Hills.

The amount of the investment is estimated at € 30 million.

Supporting facilities include the construction of its unique, Mediterranean-style wellness center, located in one of the most privileged areas of the tourist resort.

The basic feature of the wellness center is its architectural design, which is based on the philosophy of connecting the exterior to the indoor facilities.

In addition to the above, the new investment will include the expansion and enrichment of the resort's sports facilities, tennis courts, outdoor gym, as well as one an equestrian center, nature walks for lovers of hiking and Routes of cycling.

The total investment to date for the Minthis Hills development project has amounted to € 75 million. As part of this investment, Pafilia has built a new ultra-modern 18-hole golf course.

The first solar park was inaugurated, during an official ceremony in Nisou, in the outskirts of Nicosia, includes five solar plants and when all are on stream, they will account for 12 per cent of the country's solar energy production.

It is a 1.5 MW solar power plant which sent its first electricity into the national grid in the presence of the Minister of Energy, Giorgos Lakkotrypis and EBRD Managing Director for Energy and National Resources, Nandita Parshad.

The unveiled solar power generator was built jointly by CYPV Energy Ltd, which has in total built three EBRD-financed solar generators, including a 1.5 MW plant in Dhali and a 4.4 MW plant in Frenaros, Cyprus' largest to date. Dimitri Morozov from CYPV Holdings Ltd said that thee solar energy projects were a result of excellent cooperation between all parties.

Also, two other solar plants, financed by the EBRD under the same project.

They will increase existing photovoltaic capacity in Cyprus by 12 per cent, bringing the total of renewables in the country's energy mix to about 9 per cent and contributing to its Paris climate talks (COP21) commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 compared with the 1990 level.

Cyprus Airways has announced the first three destinations that will be included in its flight schedule for the June 2017.

The airline will operate scheduled flights to Heraklion, Rhodes, and Tel Aviv, with two additional destinations to be announced in the next few weeks.

In 2017, Cyprus Airways will operate its Airbus A319 aircraft, offering 144 Economy seats. In Autumn, the airline will announce a revised and extended flight schedule to be implemented in March 2018, with the arrival of a second aircraft of the same type.

The Ayia Napa marina will then begin operations in the summer of 2019.

Construction works at the Ayia Napa Marina are moving full speed ahead in accordance with the set schedule.

Ayia Napa Marina will be the most important development that takes place in the Famagusta area and is one of the most ambitious projects implemented in our country.

Upon completion, the Ayia Napa Marina will upgrade the area and its tourism offering, facilitating the growth of the local economy while boosting the image of Ayia Napa as a top-quality destination for both investment and tourism.

For the sixth consecutive quarter economic growth has been reported for Cyprus, with the third quarter of 2016 recording a growth rate of 2.9% according to the Cyprus Statistical Service.

Τhe GDP growth rate in real terms during the third quarter of 2016 is positive and estimated at +2.9% over the corresponding quarter of 2015. Based on seasonally and working day adjusted data, GDP growth rate in real terms is estimated at +2.9%.

The increase of the GDP growth rate is mainly attributed to the sectors: "Hotels and Restaurants”, "Professional, Scientific and Technical Activities”, "Retail and Wholesale Trade”, "Manufacturing”, "Construction” and "Transport”. Negative growth rates were recorded by the sectors: "Financial Service Activities” and Information and Communication”.