Cyprus has the building blocks to become a formidable regional hub, the Chief Scientist of the Republic of Cyprus, Demetris Skourides, said on Thursday, during a session titled “Cyprus: from emerging hub to global player”, at the first day of the Cyprus Diaspora Forum 2026 taking place in Limassol.

According to the Chief Scientist, Cyprus is open for business and wants to create a two-way value stream with businesses, facilitating their access to Europe.

“Many people often wonder and say, can really Cyprus become a global or a regional hub?: The answer is yes”, he continued, adding that between 2020 and 2025, the number of companies that are coming into startups has quintupled.

“The Cyprus ecosystem is growing, and this is all happening mainly because of two things. People are trusting the value that the ecosystem is building. People are trusting the innovation. People are trusting the innovation ecosystem. People are trusting the way that the country is changing, the new processes we're building, and the transparency that we're building over, which is very, very important”, he stressed.

“What we are seeing here is that we have the capability to do R&D, coming up from a chip all the way to maritime and shipping, all the way to health care, and what we are seeing now is we're moving slowly into the phase where these companies are coming together and they are building the clusters that can move forward. So, we don't talk about Cyprus becoming a hub in 10 years, we already have the building blocks moving into the area for us to be a formidable regional hub”, he further noted.

The island’s transition is backed by robust economic indicators:

• GDP Growth: 3.4% and rising.
• Unemployment: Below 4.5%.
• Maritime Excellence: 3rd fastest-growing shipping management service in Europe (10th globally).
• Innovation: Ranked 25th on the Global Innovation Index and 10th globally for turning innovation inputs into tangible outputs.

Cyprus ranks in the top three in terms of attractive, attracting investment basically or funding from European sources, continued the Chief Scientist, adding that this means that now Cyprus no longer stands as a small island, but acts as a bridge that will be eventually going all the way to Australia.

For his part, the President of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Stavros Stavrou, said that Cyprus is steadily positioning itself as a destination for innovation, research, entrepreneurship, and investment, actively shaping its future by fostering collaboration and supporting businesses that are willing to grow beyond national borders.

“For Cypriot enterprises—especially small and medium-sized businesses—internationalisation is not optional. It is essential. The local market alone is not sufficient to support long-term growth. Businesses need to look outward, to explore new markets, to form partnerships, and to compete at a higher level”, he continued, adding that the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, through international partnerships and cooperation with European and global business support networks, offers companies access to a wide range of opportunities beyond Cyprus.

He added that the Chamber works closely with organisations, such as the Research and Innovation Foundation and Invest Cyprus, to ensure that businesses understand and have access to the available tools and opportunities.

According to Stavrou, the Cypriot diaspora represents a valuable extension of Cyprus beyond its borders, bringing international experience, professional networks, market knowledge, and a deep understanding of how businesses operate and grow in competitive environments.

“For us, the diaspora is not simply a community abroad. It is a group of potential partners who can actively contribute to the development of Cyprus through mentoring entrepreneurs, facilitating market entry, investing in new ventures, and sharing knowledge and expertise. The key challenge is how to make this collaboration more structured and more effective”, he continued.

“Progress does not come from isolated actions. It comes from cooperation between people and institutions that share a common vision and purpose. In the case of Cyprus, this means cooperation between businesses, research organisations, public authorities, and our global diaspora”, he concluded.

Theodoros Loukaides, Director General of the Research and Innovation Foundation, said that Cyprus is evolving into a dynamic innovation ecosystem, standing on the 25th place internationally on the Global Innovation Index, across 130 economies.

He added Cyprus is ranked 16th globally for innovation outputs, which means that the ability to turn inputs into outputs is quite impressive, adding that in recent years the startup ecosystem has been also growing.

“We've been very proud of what we have achieved in terms of enabling doers, those who dare to think big and act bigger, to actually put us on the top 40 globally on the startup ecosystem report. We've been improving our performance for two years in a row and we are the fastest growing EU startup ecosystem”, he noted.

He added that Cyprus has a rapidly growing innovation ecosystem, which consists of 800 startups and scale-ups, across multiple sectors, from digital technologies all the way to life sciences, shipping, maritime tech, energy tech, clean tech, a.o.

“It's quite impressive the breadth and span of innovation activity that happens on a small island like Cyprus. In recent years, we've been fortunate to see about 60 investors investing in startups and scale-ups based in Cyprus. If we had talked about investors a few years ago, most probably it was an unknown term, but these days, we do see more and more investment going into our ecosystem. Over time, we have 30 research organisations, universities, centres of excellence, research institutes, both publicly funded but also privately funded, actively creating high-quality research, which of course forms the base on top of which we can build all these great innovations, and today, we are very proud to have more and more companies and ecosystem actors”, he stressed.

Source: CNA (ΚΥΠΕ)