The Turkish Cypriot business community have said that further increases in the cost of electricity will be a disaster for North Cyprus.
Their reactions follow statements by Economy Minister Ozdil Nami that an increase in the price of electricity is inevitable.
Chairman of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce Turgay Deniz, told Turkish Cypriot daily ‘Diyalog’ that the increase in the cost of electricity will negatively influence everybody and argued that this increase should be made gradually. It would not be easy to recover from this loss, he said, adding that both businesses and the people have no strength to endure any more. “Anyway we use the most expensive electricity in the world”, he said.
Additionally, chairman of the Turkish Cypriot hoteliers’ union Fethi Ozbogac, said that they are facing “terrifying” electricity prices and that their problems have reached a critical stage. He argued that what they should actually do is to focus on tourism, which is the only way to deal with the devaluation of the Turkish lira and the purchase of fuel with foreign currency.
Finally, Ugur Ergun, chairman of the Young Businessmen’s Association, said that it is very difficult for them to accept a new increase in the price of electricity, but it is not very difficult to see that this increase will not be the last one. He argued that in a country which has such expensive electricity, you can neither produce nor achieve success in various business sectors.
Diyalog, LGC News
