GEM Cyprus Report: One in two Cypriots considers it easy to start a business

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

The National Report for Entrepreneurship was compiled by the University of Cyprus’ Centre for Entrepreneurship - acting as the National Coordinator and Cyprus’ representative in the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) - with the support and sponsorship of the Ministry of Energy, Commerce, and Industry.

This was the sixth consecutive year that Cyprus has participated GEM while through its participation in the GEM consortium, the island has been placed on the global map of entrepreneurship and innovation.

The Report shows that, in 2021/2022, perceptions about entrepreneurship in Cyprus remained optimistic despite the pandemic situation.

There was a notable improvement in terms of the perceived opportunities. Approximately one in two Cypriots perceived that there were good opportunities to start a business in their area, a significant increase from 2020/2021, when the corresponding index rate was just 21.1%.

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

Furthermore, 64.1% of the survey responders believe that they have the necessary capabilities including knowledge, skills, and experiences to start a new business. Results also showed 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 in Cyprus is becoming more familiar with entrepreneurship.

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 towards 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 (TEA) was also lower compared to the pre-pandemic survey (8.6% in 2021/2022 versus 12.2% in 2019/2020), but it showed a small improvement of 0.2% compared to 2020/2021, the first year of the pandemic.

The improvement was markedly higher for the index value of established businesses (business that has paid salaries, wages, or has made other payments to the owners for more than 42 months), measured at 8.6% versus 7.3% in the previous year, indicating the start of a recovery for mature businesses.