Natasa Pilides, Cyprus' former top investment advocate, has set her sights on ways to help boost the maritime industry in her role as the country's new shipping minister.
"In terms of shipping in general, I think there are a lot of challenges that Cyprus is involved in," she told TradeWinds during CapitalLink's Invest in Cyprus Forum in New York.
Pilides was appointed in March as the maritime island nation's first-ever deputy minister of shipping to the president of Cyprus.
Previously, she served for two years as director general of the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency, responsible for attracting investors to the country.
Before speaking at today's event, she shared two top priorities she plans to tackle at the helm of an agency with 150 employees and locations worldwide: "green" shipping and cybersecurity.
Pilides said Cyprus supports green shipping and tries to be as active as possible on the subject.
She said her ministry handed a paper to the International Maritime Organization on further developing goals on reducing ship pollution.
"It outlines some of our suggestions regarding the short-term measures and how they need to be further developed for ... a practical roadmap of how we obtain the objectives for CO2 reduction," she said.
The IMO plans to require ships to lower greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, three decades after they must lessen ship exhaust sulphur content to 0.5%.
To help address cybersecurity, the ministry is working with the Cyprus Department of Information Technology Services to help shipowners ensure they have secure systems.
"We survey major cybersecurity threats on Cyprus-flagged vessels and we can provide that information to our clients," she said.
"We're thinking about how to integrate that with the outside world in a way that complies with data sharing."
Aside from solving issues, the Ministry ofDhipping will look to embrace Cyprus' recent economic growth since the 2013 crisis for the benefit of the maritime sector.
"We now have one of the fastest rates of growth in the EU, about 4%, and have managed to drop unemployment to very low levels," she said.
She also said the country has been elevated to investment grade with regards to its public debt, having recently issued a bond at the lowest rate in its history. It also has a very low tonnage tax for its flagged vessels.
"The economy is doing very well," she said.
