London Cypriots to get visit from President in ‘brain gain’ push
The President of Cyprus will visit Cypriot citizens based in London next week offering them generous tax incentives to return home.
The relocation push – dubbed the ‘Brain Gain’ – is backed up with pledges of help with education, housing and free healthcare to lure skilled workers among Britain’s 300,000-strong diaspora back to their home country.
President Nikos Christodoulides will address more than 600 people gathered in the Guildhall to announce the scheme.
A bill has been submitted to Parliament that would grant a 25 per cent tax exemption, capped at €25,000 for professionals returning home after working abroad for seven years.
As well as scientists and entrepreneurs the government is hoping to attract tech experts to work in its booming IT sector which now accounts for a greater share of GDP than tourism on the holiday island.
Talking about the Talent Repatriation Plan, a government spokesman said: “For the campaign to go from brain drain to brain gain, we will be going to London for the first meeting… on 21 May.”
More departures
London has been plagued by a spate of high net worth departures in recent months as Londoners trade their UK residencies in for lower tax regimes.
Top Goldman Sachs banker Richard Gnodde and the billionaire co-owner of Aston Villa, Wael Safiris, have both chosen to relocate to Milan in the past two months.
The pair of high-net worth individuals will both be taking advantage of a similar flat tax arrangement in Italy to the one Cyprus is offering its citizens in London.
In March, it emerged that multi-billionaire steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal was planning to move the United Arab Emirates, having spent nearly 30 years as a resident in London and been a major donor Tony Blair’s Labour Party.