The domestic production of IT related products including all hardware, software and the research associated with it, can be used as a direct measuring stick to the implementation of IT opportunities within a national community. This is certainly an are where Cyprus is in it's infancy. At the moment most focus has been placed on the R&D side of the fence, see National IT Policies, rather than the physical manufacturing or development. The government has set forth many programs and supports many more in which research can be forwarded by cooperation and alliances among various IT professionals both on a national and international front. The below statement highlights one of the perceived strengths inherently present within the Cyprus populous.

"..., one of the strong comparative advantages of Cyprus in the field of RTD, is the large community of distinguished Cypriot expatriate scientists. Several measures are being promoted in order to utilise this advantage, the most important of them being: the creation of data bases of the Cypriot expatriate scientists, which will assist in the establishment of communication channels, the inclusion of Cypriot expatriates in the lists of the Expert Advisory Groups of the Fifth Framework Programme, and the encouragement of the participation of Cypriot expatriates in the annual programmes for financing research projects, of the Research Promotion Foundation."(21)

An additional asset regarding research and development is of course the IT research pipeline or up coming professionals. It is extremely obvious that Cyprus has placed great emphasis on education at a university and graduate level, see IT Workforce. This effort will certainly not go unrewarded as their pipeline continues to fill and spill out bright, trained and motivated students to drive forward the national vision of IT.

To touch on manufacturing of hardware and software development, both of these activities are only just beginning on the island of Cyprus. Few firms are currently present doing either of these processes, but in the near future with the help of their pipeline and some governmental/EU initiatives an explosive trend should soon follow.

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