President invites villages to bid for share of €3.5bn development funding

Communities have been invited to submit projects for a new €3.5 billion funding round, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Wednesday during a visit to the village of Sykopetra in Limassol. Speaking at the opening of the Prophet Elias community park and mini football pitch, Christodoulides said the government would decide on projects across Cyprus worth that sum in the new period. He urged the community council to put forward projects, alone or with neighbouring communities, so they could be approved next September. He said the government had shown through its projects that rural and mountain areas were a priority. He cited the 2024 decision to keep Kampos primary school open when it had only one pupil. Many more children now attend, he said, because the school drew young parents to the village. He said communities needed infrastructure, especially in Limassol, so that young couples could return, and that the aim was for villages to grow beyond 120 residents. The community council’s contribution to development projects has been cut to 5 per cent. Christodoulides said support for equipping the clinic at the community stadium should be taken for granted. For community toilets, he asked the council to say how much was needed for studies, to be handled through the commissioner for mountainous communities. A house renovation for an office and a thematic museum would be supported once plans were mature and permits secured. He said the Palaichori to Sykopetra road widening, or a new link to Apliki, concerned the Nicosia district governor Constantinos Yiorkadjis, and promised to return to see whether work could proceed in phases.