SHIPPING: Cyprus campaigns for IMO re-election

Deputy Minister for Shipping, Natasa Pilides was in London this week, campaigning for Cyprus to retain its seat on the 40-member Council of the International Maritime Organisation, the UN agency regulating worldwide shipping and also to promote the island as a maritime hub.

The Council seat, which Cyprus has kept since 1987, has a two-year term and is up for re-election during the IMO annual general meeting in London at the end of November.

Pilides met with IMO Secretary General Kitack Lim with whom she discussed environmental challenges in the shipping sector, and in particular the global cap on the sulphur content of marine fuel that needs to be reduced from 3.5% to 0.5% as of January 2020, the strategy on the reduction of greenhouse gases from ships, ballast water management and ship recycling.

As part of the IMO Council re-election campaign, the deputy minister also inaugurated a photographic exhibition on “The Maritime Tradition of Cyprus – from ancient times to the modern age”, co-hosted by the Cyprus High Commission in London.

While in London, Pilides also had meetings with “a large number of shipping companies based in London” and hosted a dinner for shipping executives and international maritime industry stakeholders, according to a DMS announcement.