Cypriots say starting a company is ‘easy’

Approximately one in two Cypriots considers it easy to start a business in Cyprus, according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) Cyprus Report 2021/2022.

With the support and sponsorship of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce and Industry, the Center for Entrepreneurship (C4E) at the University of Cyprus has compiled the National Report for Entrepreneurship, acting as the national coordinator and Cyprus’ representative in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor.

A press release by the University of Cyprus says that Cyprus is participating in GEM for the sixth consecutive year and that through its participation in the GEM consortium, Cyprus is becoming part of the global map of entrepreneurship and innovation.

The results of the report show that, in 2021/2022, perceptions about entrepreneurship in Cyprus remained optimistic despite the pandemic circumstances.

In particular, the results demonstrate a notable improvement in terms of the perceived opportunities. Approximately one in two Cypriots perceives that there are good opportunities to start a business in their area, a significant increase from 2020/2021, when the corresponding index rate was only 21.1%.

The population is also optimistic with regard to the ease of starting a business, as approximately one in two Cypriots considers it easy to start a business in Cyprus.

Furthermore, 64.1% of the survey respondents believe they have the necessary capabilities including knowledge, skills and experience to start a new business. Results also show that a clear majority of Cypriots (72.9%) personally know an entrepreneur. These index rates have increased compared to the previous two years, indicating that the population of Cyprus is becoming more familiar with entrepreneurship, the report says.

However, fear of failure was notably higher compared to the pre-pandemic years but did not increase further in the second year of the pandemic. In 2021/2022 approximately one in two Cypriots expressed fear of failure in starting a new business, whereas in 2019/2020 the value of the fear of failure index in Cyprus was 36.4%.

Total early-stage entrepreneurial activity was also lower compared to the pre-pandemic survey (8.6% in 2021/2022 versus 12.2% in 2019/2020).