The Cyprus Shipping Deputy Ministry announced the creation of a Committee for the development of maritime culture and the promotion of seafarers and maritime studies in Cyprus. The Committee is chaired by the Shipping Deputy Minister and will be made up of representatives of the shipping industry and more specifically of the Cyprus Shipowners’ Association, the Cyprus Shipping Chamber and the Cyprus Maritime and Maritime Institute (CMMI).

The purpose of the Committee is to coordinate the actions of all the bodies that make up the maritime community of Cyprus with the aim of developing a maritime culture and promoting maritime and maritime studies and professions as well as the joint formulation of proposals and recommendations to Academic Institutions and Maritime Academies so that the study programs offered or any new ones that will be formed fully respond to the modern challenges and needs facing shipping at a national and global level.

The first meeting of the Committee was held on Monday, July 11, and the framework of the Committee’s operation was set, as well as the ways of implementing the above goals. Referring to this specific initiative, the Shipping Deputy Minister, Vassilios Demetriades, said: “Recently, we as the Shipping Deputy Ministry, have taken specific actions and initiatives to promote maritime and maritime professions as well as to cultivate a maritime culture in our country. The shipping industry is also taking noteworthy actions.

The aim of the Committee is to join our efforts so that we coordinately strengthen our messages to our Civil Society, students, parents and teachers to know and embrace shipping as an industry with huge career potential and as a sector that makes us proud with its services. At the same time, we want to formulate guidelines for Academic Institutions to offer degrees that respond even more effectively to the modern needs faced by the shipping industry.”