Day: July 22, 2022

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Cyprus’ Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy participates in informal meeting of EU Competitiveness Council

Better coordination, closer cooperation and targeted synergies, will help maximise the impact of funding in the Research and Innovation (R&D) sector, Cyprus’ Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, Kyriakos Kokkinos, told his EU counterparts on Friday at an informal meeting of the EU Competitiveness Council, in Prague.

Kokkinos joined other EU Ministers responsible for their countries’ research agenda for an informal meeting of the EU Competitiveness Council in the framework of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU.

The main theme of the policy debate was to exploit the potential for synergies between EU and national initiatives and programmes to promote research and innovation in Europe. Among other things, the competent Ministers presented their countries’ experiences in the context of the 2014-20 programming period, the challenges and difficulties they faced and their expectations for the new 2021-27 period.

In his intervention, Kokkinos, referred to obstacles that Cyprus faced during the previous programming period, such as the overlapping of actions and tools as well as the increased administrative burden of the various time-consuming procedures. He expressed the belief that through better coordination, closer cooperation and targeted synergies, the impact of R&D funding would be maximised.

The informal meeting was chaired by the Czech Republic’s Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Vladimír Balaš, as host. The EU was represented by Mariya Gabriel, the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

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Monkeypox vaccines to arrive in Cyprus on Monday

The arrival of the first vaccines for monkeypox is expected on Monday, the CNA has learned.

Sources told CNA that 1,400 doses of the vaccine in question are expected to arrive.

It is noted that, so far, no suspicious case has been detected in Cyprus, while since last June the Ministry of Health has prepared a plan for the management of a possible case.

Monkeypox cases have been detected in Europe, Australia and North America.

According to a competent source within the Ministry of Health there is no question of a mass vaccination of the population, since the specific virus is not easily transmitted.

The same source said that it is recommended that the vaccine is administered to health professionals who will treat confirmed cases, but also to the contacts of the cases.

It is recalled that the Nicosia General Hospital has been designated as the referral hospital for monkeypox infections among adults and the Makarios Hospital for cases concerning children.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

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Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations to further decline as we overcome peak of current wave, Dr Karayiannis tells CNA

A gradual decline in COVID-19 cases and hospitalisations is expected in the coming days as we overcome the peak of the current wave, Professor of Microbiology/Molecular Virology at the University of Nicosia Medical School, Peter Karayiannis, told CNA on Friday.

He said that the strategy followed by the Ministry of Health and the Scientific Advisory Committee to not take any stricter measures has paid off, adding that this is the approach to follow in the winter months, unless a problematic new strain appears.

Invited to comment on the drop of the positivity rate, he said that the decrease recorded means that “we have passed the peak of the current wave”.

He explained that the number of cases will most probably continue a downward trend and noted that it is encouraging that the number of hospitalisations has decreased compared to the previous week.

“It seems that we are getting over this current wave,” he said.

Asked if citizens are vulnerable or should feel safe, he said “we can feel safe. I think this was evident from the approach taken by the Ministry and the Scientific Advisory Committee, that there was no need to take any stricter measures. This has worked without having to impose any restrictions”.

He said that they will continue with the same approach in the winter, clarifying, however, that measures will only be taken in the event there is a “particularly problematic” new strain.

If there are no new strains in Cyprus the situation will remain as it is, he said.

He ruled out the possibility of a new lockdown in the winter, saying that there is a high vaccination coverage in Cyprus and thus serious hospitalisations are being avoided to a large extent.

Concluding, he said that in the fall there will be recommendations and a campaign to make people aware once more of the value of vaccination.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

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Total Telecom: Transformation of Intelligent Digitalization Is Key to Improve Revenue, Efficiency and User Experience

Total Telecom reported how transformation of intelligent digitalization acts as a key to enable operators to create new business value during Huawei’s Win-Win Innovation Week.

As digitalization and intelligence have opened up new market potential and created growth engines during the transformation of the carriers, Peng Song, President, Carrier BG Marketing and Solution Sales Dept., Huawei, elaborated on how the carriers can accelerate the transformation of intelligent digitalization at three layers during his address at the Win-Win Conference.

The three-layer intelligent digital transformation includes, as Peng Song explained, intelligent digitalization of services, Operations and Maintenance (O&M), as well as infrastructure. This will help the carriers create three key values of revenue increase, experience improvement and improvement in quality and efficiency.

“Based on Huawei’s transformation practices, we need to select key scenarios based on pain points, create values in one point and gradually extend it to wider areas,” says Peng Song.

He further mentioned that the transformation of the marketing recorded three key stages. The first stage was “changing the work mode” to improve operational efficiency and user experience. The second stage was “changing the decision-making model”, where the translation from product value to customer business value was maximized. The third and last stage was “enabling capability improvement of partners”, where internal capabilities were used to enable the industry.

Moreover, Huawei leveraged its experience of enabling the transformation of more than 100 operators to come up with the Five Dimensions and Five Levels assessment model for the maturity of O&M intelligent digital transformation. At the same time, it has created a global “Digital Intelligent Transformation DigiVerse Center” which summarizes high-value scenarios in the actual transformation process.

Intelligent digital transformation is a structural and systematic transition targeting business value. It is a journey demanding continuous effort in improving quality and efficiency through automation and intelligence, and bringing richer personal and enterprise services.

About Total Telecom

Total Telecom offers daily online news with the option to sign up for headlines by email and monthly analysis. Total Telecom organises the annual World Communication Awards, Asia Communication Awards and a range of conferences and networking opportunities, including Submarine Networks EMEA, 5GLIVE, Connected Italy, Connected Britain, Connected Germany and the Total Telecom Congress.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

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CBC downgrades its forecasts for Cyprus’ economic growth in 2022

Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) downgraded by 0.9 percentage points its forecasts for GDP growth in 2022, due to the negative effects of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia.

At the same time, its Governor did not rule out the deterioration of the quality of bank’s assets in Cyprus, due to the geopolitical crisis.

According to the June 2022 edition of CBC’s Economic Bulletin, Cyprus’ economy is projected to grow 2.7% in 2022, compared to 3.6% which was the forecast in December 2021.

“The greatest impact is expected on net exports, while domestic demand (private consumption and investments), show resilience due to the expected investments, but also the use of part of the savings accumulated during the pandemic”, it is noted.

At the same time, the CBC slightly downgraded its projections for GDP in 2023 and 2024, by 0.1 percentage point each, due to some scarring effects. Specifically, GDP is projected to grow by 3.6% in 2023 and by 3.7% in 2023, driven by continued recovery in domestic demand and net exports in 2023.

“The downward revision in the years 2023 – 24 is small, due to the expected significant support to economic activity from the absorption of funds from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF),” the CBC Economic Bulletin adds.

Governor of CBC Constantinos Herodotou in his introductory statement points out that the “the degree of uncertainty, is still high and any current forecast may vary”.

He adds however that “the Cypriot economy may show even greater resilience to the effects of the war compared to the June 2022 forecasts, in case the positive developments in relation to consumer confidence and tourism continue, as demonstrated in recent relevant indicators”.

Non-performing loans

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Regarding the domestic banking sector, the CBC Governor points out that the immediate effects of the war do not appear to be a threat, as the direct exposure of the domestic banking sector to Russia and Ukraine is very low both in terms of deposits and loans.

However, he notes that although the effects of the pandemic on banks’ loan portfolios have not been as strong as initially expected, mainly due to the direct measures taken by the CBC, the ECB and the state’s the fiscal measures, “it is still early to rule out the possibility of a deterioration in the quality of the banks’ assets, especially taking into account the unfavorable economic developments due to the geopolitical crisis”.

Inflation

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Regarding inflation, the Harmonized Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) is expected to rise to 7% in 2022 compared to 2.3% in 2021

The CBC notes that its updated HICP forecasts show a significant upward revision, especially for 2022 (4.5 percentage points) and to a lesser extent in 2023-24 (1.6 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively).

“This is mainly due to the significant increases in energy prices, as well as the widening of inflationary pressures in the categories of food, services and industrial goods excluding energy,” it is added.

Unemployment

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According to the CBC, unemployment is expected to decrease to 6.9% in 2022, from 7.5% in 2021, however the projection for 2022 is slightly increased compared to the CBC’s forecast in December 2021.

The CBC sees a downward trend for unemployment in the coming years, coming closer to full employment conditions by 2024, with a rate of 5.7%.

Nominal cost per employee

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The CBC also sees a relatively small increase in nominal expenditure per employee in 2022 at 3.2%, compared to 4.7% in 2021, due to the automatic price indexation of wages (ATA) system and the ongoing implementation of existing collective agreements (hotels, constructions).

Larger increases are expected in 2023 and 2024, to 5.8% and 3.7% respectively, reflecting the payment of higher ATA due to inflationary pressures as well as the relatively larger increases expected in collective agreements.

Source: Cyprus News Agency