Cyprus as EU-Location for Asset-Protection

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a framework to develop a competitive advantage of the financial market of Cyprus interrelating political, historical, legal and economic aspects. As the current era of globalisation implies intense international competition for attracting financial resources, the discussion has been positioned in the context of competitive advantage. The research intends to provide authorities and all stakeholders involved with a comprehensive pool of internal and external competitive elements reflected in a holistic framework synthesising country, industry and company perspectives. Whereas current literature refers more to individual and scattered elements of competitive advantage a coherent view is very seldom applied. No such study on comprehensive factors of competitive advantage of the Financial Centre of Cyprus has been provided so far. The paper qualitatively validates a model applied for another successful financial market, Liechtenstein, to analyse its applicability to the Cyprus case. Against the background of the global financial crisis and the still existing Cyprus problem, the paper pays special attention to the security aspect penetrating all factors of the model. The paper intends to provide a holistic view on the factors of competitive advantage of the Financial Centre of Cyprus.