Interview with former president George Vassiliou, by Pricewaterhousecoopers.

How would you summarise the Cyprus crisis?

GV: Well in a nutshell, there is no doubt that there was a debt issue. However, the whole way it was presented, I think it was unfair to Cyprus. To start with, everybody knows that the banking crisis in Cyprus originated in Greece. If the Greek economy had not collapsed, nobody would have complained about Cyprus. If when the decision about the PSI in Greece was taken, the Greek government had said, ‘but you know, the Cyprus banks in Greece are as Greek as the Greek banks, so they have to be treated in the same way, they have not done that.

Of course it is true that our President at that time, Mr Christofias, did not realise the repercussions and voted yes, they said they wanted to be in unanimity with the other EU members and other Eurogroup member countries but they should have realised that the repercussions of this PSI (Private Sector Involvement) for Cyprus would have been huge.

The number of unemployed person rose to 45.201 persons in April, amid the ongoing financial and economic crisis, said the Cyprus Statistical Service.

A Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) terminal providing for the processing and transport of natural gas is set to be completed in 2019-2020 and will be the largest investment in the island's history, said Commerce Minister George Lakkotrypis in a speech in Tel Aviv.

The 10-billion dollar LNG project development is in partnership with Noble Energy, and has an initial production capacity of five million tons (MT) per year. It will grow to a capacity of 15 MT per year, said Lakkotrypis. There would be a pipeline running from Israel's Leviathan gas field to Vasiliko, along the Larnaca-Limassol coastline.