NICOSIA, Sept. 15 (Xinhua) -- The Cypriot government has amended a scheme for granting citizenship to foreign businessmen and investors to make it more investment-oriented, Finance Minister Harris Georgiades said on Thursday.
"We do not want money to sit in the banks...We want to encourage real investment that would benefit growth, employment and the economy," Georgiades told the state radio after the cabinet approved the new scheme.
The new scheme changes the requirement for a total collective investment of 12 million euros with a new provision for an individual investment of just 2 million euros and the purchase of a residence worth at least 500,000 euros.
It also abolishes a provision for the granting of Cypriot citizenship to those with a bank deposit of 5 million euros and to depositors who had their deposits impaired in the 2013 recapitalization of the banks by bail-in.
Georgiades said the 2-million-euro investment may be in the form of buying real estate, land development for building homes or business space, tourism and other infrastructure projects.
In this case, the investor will not be required to purchase residence housing.
The citizenship granting scheme was started after Cyprus was forced into applying a 10-billion-euro bailout in March 2013, in a bid to attract badly needed liquidity and help the highly depressed construction sector.
For this reason, it was originally oriented towards attracting bank deposits and the buying of government stock of up to 2.5 million euros, or buying a house.
The new scheme also grants Cypriot citizenship to those buying assets such as bonds which have been licensed by the Cyprus Security and Exchange Commission worth 2 million euros. (1 euro = 1.13 U.S. dollars)
