We would like to inform you that the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, as the Coordinator and representative of the Cypriot consortium of the Enterprise Europe Network, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Cyprus Statistical Society (CSS). This collaboration aims to promote statistical literacy, improve the use of data, and strengthen evidence-based decision-making among Cypriot businesses.
EEN Cyprus is a consortium of four organisations: the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Research and Innovation Foundation, the European Office of Cyprus, and the Cyprus Energy Agency. It is the Cypriot member of Europe’s largest SME support network and provides information, advisory, internationalisation, innovation, sustainability, and access-to-finance services. The Cyprus Statistical Society, based in Nicosia, is a scientific association that promotes and disseminates Statistical Science and its applications, fostering statistical literacy, research, and the proper use of data for informed decision-making.
This cooperation is particularly important at a time when SMEs, and especially micro-enterprises, are operating in an environment characterised by uncertainty, intense competition, and constant change. Access to data alone is not enough. What truly matters is the ability of businesses to transform data into useful knowledge and use it to make informed decisions on issues such as pricing policies, inventory management, market selection, investment planning, understanding customer needs, and improving productivity.
Statistical literacy does not mean that every entrepreneur must become a statistician. It does mean, however, that business owners should possess the basic skills needed to correctly interpret data and use it to benefit their businesses. Understanding concepts such as trends, seasonality, variability, and median values can help businesses gain a more reliable picture of their performance, identify opportunities and risks at an early stage, and plan their next steps more effectively.
Through this collaboration, EEN Cyprus and the Cyprus Statistical Society will seek to bring the business community and scientific knowledge closer together, strengthening the practical application of statistics in day-to-day business operations. Particular emphasis will be placed on micro-enterprises, which constitute the majority of Cypriot businesses and often lack specialised in-house data analysis capabilities, despite having to make critical business decisions.
The collaboration will include joint awareness-raising and training activities, workshops, exchange of expertise, provision of specialised information, and the exploration of opportunities for cooperation in European initiatives and projects of common interest. The objective is to create a meaningful bridge between businesses, statistical science, and European support instruments.
This initiative highlights the importance of leveraging European SME support networks in synergy with specialised scientific and professional organisations. By combining expertise, experience, and resources, more comprehensive, targeted, and effective services can be developed to address the real needs of businesses.
The key message of this new collaboration is simple: Cypriot businesses need not only more data, but above all a better understanding and more effective use of that data. Through the cooperation between Enterprise Europe Network Cyprus and the Cyprus Statistical Society, the aim is to strengthen businesses’ ability to make evidence-based decisions and to use scientific knowledge as a practical tool for growth, competitiveness, and innovation