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                                                 Stelios Business Award (2)

Back in September, we reported on an innovative new business award, which is being financed by the well-known entrepreneur and founder of easyGroup, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou. The Stelios Award for Business Co-operation in Cyprus received an overwhelming response from new Cypriot businesses, especially as Stelios promised to give away €1 million of his own money over the next four years. His aim is to encourage entrepreneurship and bi-communal business teamwork across the island and the initiative is targeted particularly at young, dynamic businesses which need growth funding.

Applications closed on 11th September and Stelios has been putting award finalists through their paces to decide who should win the first five €50,000 cheques.  According to a report in the Cyprus Mail, applicants took a step closer to those cheques a couple of weeks ago at a “Business Idol” event at Larnaca’s easyHotel. Stelios hosted the event himself and invited a shortlist of ten bi-communal entrepreneurial teams to spend five minutes introducing their business and convince him why their team should win one of the five €50,000 awards.

Stelios commented, “I was positively surprised that we received as many as 46 original applications” he said, adding: “…we’re going to go from the ten finalists to the five who are going to win the €50,000 within the next two months. The nine presentations – one team failed to turn up – covered a range of business ideas, including researching the economic benefits of reunification, through providing commercial software and ecotourism services and training farmers to grow seed-potatoes.

It was clear from at least three of the presentations that, as well as having specific business ideas, the budding entrepreneurs also believe very strongly in the need for the island to be reunified in a real, everyday business sense. As one team put it, “If we leave it to the politicians alone, we’ll never have a solution.” Stelios believes this to be a very healthy attitude, “Each one of the teams is saying that if there is reunification, then they will have a bigger market to aim for. Everybody wants to grow their business, and they have another market on their doorstep. Why would anyone say no to that?”

When he announced the award in April, Stelios said, “When money talks, people set aside their differences.” For him, the Award for Business Co-Operation in Cyprus is not about finding an opportunity to make money, but rather to spend his money in a way that has more of a multiplier effect. He said, “If this works here, it may have an application in other divided communities. So if I can encourage all these teams to break down the barriers between the two communities, it may change the landscape on the island.”
The five award winners will receive their cheques at a ceremony in Nicosia on December 18th.

• For more information, visit www.stelios.com/cyprus-business-cooperation

Author: Anne Hall