The United Arab Emirates' Investment Fund (TAQA) has expressed interest in investing in the Great Sea Interconnector project, as well as exploring a range of other investment opportunities opening up in Cyprus, announced Victoras Papadopoulos, Director of the Press Office of the President of the Republic of Cyprus.

TAQA's CEO, Jasim Husain Thabet, and members of the UAE Investment Fund, met on Friday morning with the President of the Republic, Nicos Christodoulides, at the Presidential Palace. The meeting was also attended by Marios Panayides, Director General of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce, and Industry, and other officials. The Minister of Energy, Commerce, and Industry, Georgios Papanastasiou, participated via teleconference after testing positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, as he himself announced.

In his statements after the meeting, Mr. Papadopoulos noted that the presence of the head and members of the UAE Investment Fund in Cyprus, and their meeting with the President of the Republic, follows the visit of the UAE's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for economic and trade affairs last summer. "Their presence aims to explore investment prospects in Cyprus, a move welcomed by the Government as such investments are essential for maintaining our economy's growth trajectory, which is among the highest in the EU," he said.

During today's meeting, interest was expressed by the investment fund to invest in the Great Sea Interconnector project and in a series of other investment prospects opening up in Cyprus. To this end, it was agreed that, in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce, the investment fund will examine a list of projects within a month that are either mature or nearing maturity, from which the fund can choose to invest in Cyprus.

In response to a journalist's question, Papadopoulos mentioned that these projects involve infrastructure and development works in Cyprus more broadly.