The Government’s plan for building an economy of knowledge, innovation and technology is at an advanced stage, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy, Nicodemos Damianou, has said, after visiting The Cyprus Institute’s “PROTEAS” energy technology facility.
The Deputy Minister of Research visited the ‘PROTEAS’ facilities in Pentakomo on Friday morning and praised the work being carried out by The Cyprus Institute, saying that ‘there are solutions that the Government is interested in examining.’
In his statements, Damianou pointed out that the Government, is building a new productive model, essentially transforming an economy – which is based, almost exclusively, on services – into an economy of knowledge, innovation and technology.
It is a model, he continued, which is at an advanced stage and within its framework ‘we are also designing the new research and innovation strategy, which is in progress, but also completing the new strategy for artificial intelligence, the public consultation of which has essentially been completed.’
The Deputy Minister said he expects that Cyprus will become a center in which cutting-edge technologies will be tested and innovative solutions will be implemented, ‘in sectors in which we have institutional knowledge, we have special weight, as a country, but also sectors that interest us’.
Such a sector, he added, is energy issues and noted that “PROTEAS” is a living example of this model.
“We do not want to be simply a consumer of technology, but to provide those solutions that will bring innovative businesses to the island, organizations that want to develop solutions and give them a reason to be here, because this is precisely what will give new momentum to what Cyprus has to offer in the new era, the era of artificial intelligence.”
In his statements, President of The Cyprus Institute Stavros Malas pointed out that it is necessary to design energy solutions for the country’s future.
He referred to the desalination plants that operate and consume too much energy, as he said, expressing the position that “at some point, we must move to another model and replace them.”
At “PROTEAS,” he continued, new technologies are being tested, in collaboration with companies, “so that we can produce water, which will now be the permanent solution, mainly with regard to water supply.”
Referring to agriculture, he said that “we use technologies here that store energy so that we can heat our greenhouses with RES and of course produce water to water the plants.”
“It is an ecosystem of combined technologies that Cyprus is obliged to follow,” Malas said, adding that “our country must plan the energy transition to green development from now on.”