Republic of Cyprus Second Voluntary National Report - Sustainable development goals

111 PARTNERSHIP FOR THE GOALS SDG 17 | Strengthen themeans of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development Highlights – 2020 • According to the 2020 European Semester In-Depth-Review conducted by the European Commission, Cyprus has achieved considerable progress in addressing macroeconomic imbalances that intensified with the onset of the financial crisis in 2013. However, important challenges remain (high public and private debts, high ratio of non-performing loans). • As an EU member state, Cyprus has implemented various actions towards providing assistance to developing countries. • Cyprus allocated 0.21% of its Gross National Income to Official Development Assistance in 2019, as opposed to 0.12% in 2018. • An inverse U-shaped trend is observed in regard to public debt, with an increase from 56.4% of GDP in 2010, to 94% in 2019, with its peak being 109.1% in 2014. Covid Response • Due to the domestic financial crisis, and the Covid-19 pandemic, no increase was observed in the development assistance to developing countries. • Cyprus, in accordance with the rest of the members of EU, has supported efforts to relief the debt of mainly African countries, which emerged as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Looking Ahead • Reforms will be introduced in key areas to attract productivity-enhancing investments, diversify the economy, and help foster inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth in the long term. • In preparation for the next budgetary cycle, proposals for a substantial increase of the Scholarship Fund are under consideration, aimed at offering annual scholarships for undergraduate studies in developing countries. Efforts to further modernise tax administration are ongoing, including digital enhancements and new IT systems. EU RANK TREND GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP Official Development Assistance 14 : Financing to Developing Countries from Official Development Assistance 27 : FINANCIAL GOVERNANCE WITHIN EU General Government Gross Debt 21 Share of Environmental Taxes in Total Tax Revenues 13 Note: Data comes from the Statistical Service of Cyprus. EU rank presents the rank of Cyprus among the EU member states, for the most recent available year. Trend presents the 10-year trend from 2010-2019. Pos, Neg, Neg-Pos, and, Pos-Neg indicate a positive, a negative, a U-shape and an inverse U-shape trend, respectively. Green arrows indicate an improvement in the performance of Cyprus and red arrows indicate a decline in the performance of Cyprus. indicates a constant trend. : indicates that the trend is not calculated, because less than 8 years of data are available.