Cyprus sets sights becoming Eastern Mediterranean AI hub by 2032, says Damianou

Cyprus wants to become a leading artificial intelligence hub in the Eastern Mediterranean by 2032, with the government focusing on how the technology can improve public services and strengthen five of the island’s main industries, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, Nicodemos Damianou said. Speaking at the Digital Agenda Cyprus Summit in Nicosia, Damianou set out the thinking behind the country’s new AI strategy, which puts practical adoption ahead of technology for its own sake. In a post on his personal account, he said “AI can expand what Cyprus is capable of.” He added, “Our responsibility is to turn that potential into progress people can see and trust.” That approach, he explained, is reflected in the strategy’s central focus, “Applying and Adopting AI where it can deliver the greatest national value.” By 2032, the government wants Cyprus to become “The leading trusted AI hub in the Eastern Mediterranean,” “A reliable European jurisdiction for AI-enabled services” and “A bridge between the EU and our neighbouring regions.” The aim is to create “An environment where AI systems can be developed and validated under EU-aligned rules, then scaled to European and regional markets.” For Cyprus, that would mean not only using AI at home but also giving companies a base from which to serve customers in Europe and the surrounding region. Rather than spread its efforts across every industry, the government is concentrating on the public sector and five areas with an established economic presence: financial services, healthcare, tourism, legal services and shipping. “Our new AI Strategy sets out the capabilities we need and the conditions under which we pursue that ambition,” Damianou said. He added, “Our effort is deliberately focused on the public sector and five economic sectors where Cyprus has institutional strength and capacity: financial services, healthcare, tourism, legal services and shipping.” The work will also depend on the availability of people with the right skills and businesses able to turn new technology into products and services. As Damianou put it, “Two areas underpin this effort: education and human capital, and entrepreneurship and innovation.” The broader national strategy, which went through public consultation earlier this year, sets out objectives covering responsible AI use, public-sector modernisation, skills, data and infrastructure, and cooperation between government, industry and research institutions. Earlier summit reporting also referred to 16 flagship AI programmes planned through 2032, alongside initiatives to support adoption in government and improve workforce skills. The challenge now is to move from those plans to projects that businesses and citizens can actually use. That will require investment in the less visible foundations of AI, particularly access to reliable data, computing capacity and systems that allow public services to use the technology securely. It will also mean helping smaller businesses, not only large organisations, adapt to new tools. The discussion at the summit went beyond the economic case for AI. Damianou joined futurist Matthew Griffin, Mohamed Rashid Bin Taliah, George Tziortzis and Michalis Sophocleous for a panel on the changing relationship between citizens and the state. He described it as a conversation about “how AI is reshaping the relationship between citizens and the state.” For the government, the measure of success will be whether those changes make an everyday difference. “Our task as Government is to make AI work for Cyprus – increasing productivity, strengthening the resilience of our economy and institutions, and serving our citizens better,” Damianou concluded.