The government has announced that the cabinet has been briefed on a comprehensive strategic plan designed to strengthen the international image of Cyprus.

The initiative is titled ‘Stability with Perspective: A European Base with Global Reach’ and represents a coordinated effort between the government and Invest Cyprus to create a modern and outward-looking national identity.

In other words, it’s a massive PR campaign “to form a modern, coherent, and extroverted image of the country abroad” which sounds a lot like lots of smoke and mirrors.

We were not told how much this re-branding of Cyprus will cost but it’s bound to run into the millions.

The project is being implemented with the professional support of an international strategic communication firm to “ensure the new narrative is presented in a clear and convincing manner on the world stage”, according to the blurb.

The idea has President Nikos Christodoulos written all over it. If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, bamboozle them with BS. All shine, little substance.

Cyprus has many good qualities as a place to live and run a business, but it is far from perfect. Instead of glossing over the drawbacks of using PR for international consumption, might it not be better to admit that there are systemic issues that need resolving and then go about it?

Cyprus faces multiple problems on a practical level, not least the ever-dwindling trust in the government, parliament and other institutions. So used are we to corruption scandals, they barely register, a bit like car explosions as a means of settling scores.

Going back a bit, we had the 1999 stock market scandal, the 2013 financial crash and co-op corruption, rampant money laundering, the golden passports and the Al Jazeera expose, the Cyprus Papers, the LNG terminal fiasco, more recently the presidential ‘videogate’ and now the ‘Sandy’ debacle’.

On top of that there’s the continued environmental destruction, allowing more and more development, collapsing buildings due to a lax attitude towards inspections and under-the-table dealings as regards permits. Let’s not forget the existence of the parasitic public service that has resisted change for decades and never puts the public above their own self-interest.

Maybe the government needs to run a PR campaign at home. They probably would if they thought it would work.

The president probably thought it would impress the plebs when he brought in the US federal agency ATF to investigate last year’s massive forest fire. Now he’s also brought the FBI to help investigate the ‘Sandy’ case.

These kinds of publicity stunts only serve to give the impression that Cyprus is unable to conduct its own internal affairs and deal with its problems like the competent state it claims to be. It will not be very comforting to potential foreign investors.

A clean image cannot be constructed. It comes from having clean hands. A country that has its act together doesn’t need to run a PR campaign abroad.  Its prestige will be obvious.

Cyprus is falling on almost every index lately. So, to the government – you can blurb, but you can’t hide.