My visit to Cyprus February 2009
Add comment March 4th, 2010
I visited Cyprus on Wednesday 17 February for 3 days, basically for a catch up on QBP.
But first things first. I landed at the new airport and what an impressive structure it is. It would not be out of place anywhere in the world. The intention was certainly to create a far more positive impression of the island when you first land, and judging by the comments of the people around me it was achieving that objective. Secondly, the new offices of The Quality Group are similarly impressive, and should give us all confidence that they also view the future very positively.
As ever, the weather was warm and pleasant, but this masks the truth for the previous few months. As we all know, Cyprus has desperately been in need of rain for several years now, and at last, substantial rainfalls have arrived. In fact, the wettest January for many years saw 146% of the usual rainfall for the month falling on the island, continuing the rainy trend of the previous 3 months. The salt lakes around Larnaca were full, with the land displaying a green hue not dissimilar to our own pleasant land. I have never seen the island so green and what a wonderful sight that was. The dams high in the mountains are nearly 60 to 70% full, and I am told that there should not be a water shortage for at least the next two years, even if there is no further rainfall. Compare this to dam levels of around 20% this time last year, and you will see how much rain has fallen. Hopefully, water shortages will also be a thing of the past as more desalination plants come on line.
Obviously, having so much rain in such a short space of time also creates logistical problems. Much of the construction activity on the island has been hampered by the rains, but things seem to returning to normal now. The QBP project continues to progress, with the foundations and groundworks continuing. This really is a monumental civil engineering project and we need to devise a method to keep you up to date with its progress. For example, the engineers on site are currently pumping 400 metric tonnes of water AN HOUR from the site as they dig the foundations and put in the supporting columns. These columns will be 15 – 20 meters (around 60 feet) underground, and there will be approximately 200 of them to support the building!
There is now a lot of local interest in the project, and discussions with the financing bank are nearing finalisation to issue mortgages to all investors, along similar terms as originally envisaged. I should be able to report to you on this in the next month or so.
As we all know, the last 18 months have been the most challenging financial conditions any of us have faced. However, although I am sure 2010 will continue to throw difficulties at us, this project is still on track to deliver an outstanding building and investment to us and I will keep you in touch with its progress on a regular basis.
In the meantime, if you have any queries then please do not hesitate to contact any of us.