Despite the adverse financial conditions projects worth billions of euro are in the pipeline, Cyprus Commerce, Industry and Tourism Neoclis Sylikiotis has said.

Sylikiotis on Wednesday visited the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency to be briefed on the figures collected by the Agency with regard to possible investments by foreign or Cypriot nationals with a view to overcoming problems to their implementation.

“The CIPA list concerns projects some of which are waiting to be licensed and others have been given the go ahead while others are searching for funding,” Sylikiotis said in statements following the meeting.

He referred to projects such as the fuel terminal, golf courts, marinas and other major construction projects.

“We face difficulties but investments are being made and our effort is to give CIPA the necessary tools to promote more investments and to assist its work abroad,” he added.

Sylikiotis also reiterated the need for the reduction of red tape that would facilitate the investments, adding the government aims to open new markets such as increasing the tourist arrivals from Russia.

Concluding, he said the Ministerial Committee on promoting Foreign Direct Investment will convene to examine the figures drafted by CIPA.

On his part, CIPA Chairman Christodoulos Angastiniotis said the prospective investment list is at an advanced stage, adding there will be a second meeting of the mechanism established by CIPA in a bid to promote the rapid implementation and licensing of foreign and domestic investments.

“We believe we are on the right track,” he concluded.

According to CIPA, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in 2010 reached 578 million euro (FDI), while in 2009, Cyprus attracted a total of 2,499 million Euros in FDI compared to 965 million Euros in 2008 and 1,626 million Euros in 2007.