Christodoulides says govt must invest to raise birth rate

The government must invest more money so as to increase Cyprus’ birth rate, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Sunday, as he opened a new nursery school in the Limassol district village of Souni-Zanakia. “Our country is facing a very serious issue; a demographic challenge. Currently, our birth rate stands at 1.3 per cent – one of the lowest in Europe – whereas we need a rate of at least 2.1 per cent to ensure population replacement every 25 years,” he said. As such, he said, “this is where our major responsibility as a state comes into play”. “We must create the necessary conditions to support young families, who face a multitude of challenges, and, through our policies, address this demographic issue, to support families, especially those living in villages,” he said. He added that the government “has an obligation to provide services across three areas” in this sense, with those here areas being education, health, and the welfare state. “We fully grasp this responsibility, this role we have, and we are pleased that, through specific interventions and a well-defined plan, we are working together to address this major challenge,” he said. Govt makes 570 plots available for young families to build homes Most recently on this front, Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou had announced that the government will allocate around 570 plots of land to be built upon by young families, so as to allow people to “acquire land and build their own homes at a significantly reduced cost”. The ministry said the plots, which will be located in various locations across the island, will be sold for 25 per cent of their market value, thereby “creating a substantial opportunity for young and low- or middle-income families to acquire land and build their own residence”. Those eligible for the scheme are Cypriot nationals, who are either couples with or without children or single-parent families, with at least one person from each couple required to be aged less than 45 years old at the time the application is submitted, and the couple’s current place of residence required to be fewer than 15 kilometres from the plot they wish to buy. Each applicant family’s salary must not exceed €45,000 for childless couples or single-parent households, €50,000 for families of three, €55,000 for families of four, and €65,000 for families of five or more. The ministry said that “the allocation of plots will be made on a priority basis, to indigenous people of a village who reside permanently in it, to displaced persons who reside permanently in the village, internal emigrants who wish to return to their village, repatriates or emigrants who meet special conditions, and permanent residents of neighbouring villages”. Should multiple people apply for the same plot, it said, “priority will be given first to large families”.