Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital, Policy Nikodemos Damianou said on Friday that the Deputy Ministry’s budget for 2026 is increased by pound 5.4 million, and amounts to pound 172,864,636, of which pound 70,062,349 is for regular expenses and pound 102,802,287 for development expenditure.
Presenting the budget of the Deputy Ministry before the House Finance Committee, Damianou said that the total budget for 2026 has increased by pound 5.4 million compared to the one of 2025, which corresponds to an overall increase of 3.2%, but with a significant increase of 13.8% in development spending.
He told the members of the House Finance Committee, that innovation and digital transformation are key components of the sustainability, resilience and adaptability of every country, in the context of a constantly changing international environment.
‘The transition to a modern, digital state, which will result in the strengthening of the development perspective and competitiveness of the Cypriot economy, and, at the same time, the facilitation and substantial improvement of the daily life of citizens and businesses, is the immediate priority,’ he stressed.
Damianou referred to the upgrade of the central government portal gov.cy, which records over 500,000 visits per month, a number that together with visits to the connected websites of Ministries and Deputy Ministries exceeds 1 million.
Regarding cybersecurity, he said that governance structures, risk management procedures and incident detection and response readiness have been enhanced.
In addition, the Deputy Minister said that preventive measures are being taken in view of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2026.
He said that in 2025 the National AI Committee was established, while the ‘Digital Assistant’, the first application of Genetic AI in the Public Sector, was launched.
Damianou said that the Deputy Ministry plans for include the publication of the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the expansion of the ‘Digital Assistant’, the integration of AI technologies in large public information systems, and the further strengthening of Cypriot businesses through advanced AI tools and services.