Spud farmers, teachers get easyjet founder cash

NICOSIA (Reuters Life!) - Easyjet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou distributed cash to Cypriot farmers and teachers on Friday as part of a bid to foster closer business ties between estranged Greeks and Turks.

Five enterprises jointly run by Greek and Turkish Cypriots on the ethnically split island received cash donations from Haji-Ioannou, whose family is from Cyprus.

"If I was a footballer I guess I would have set up a football school, but I'm an entrepreneur so I wanted to help in the way I know best," Haji-Ioannou said.

Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup, with Greek Cypriots living in its south and Turkish Cypriots in the north. Links between the two sides, separated by a United Nations buffer zone, are very limited.

Peace talks have floundered over the years, with diplomats now investing hopes in a new peace process launched in September 2008.

Better known as the founder of low-cost easyjet and a host of spin-off enterprises, Haji-Ioannou has offered up to 1 million euros ($1.44 million) of his own funds to assist business projects on the island.

Almost 50 enterprises applied for funding with the shortlisted candidates having to make their selling pitch to Haji-Ioannou in public auditions.

Recipients included a venture to market Cyprus's potatoes, economists offering advice on island-wide trade and a school promoting education in Turkish, Greek and English.

Over the next four years Haji-Ioannou's philanthropic foundation will be offering five grants annually, each worth 50,000 euros.

(Writing by Michele Kambas, Editing by Steve Addison)