Meeting at the crossroads

EVERY two years, the shipping industry descends on the Mediterranean island state of Cyprus for Maritime Cyprus. Another successful event is forecast for this year.

Maritime Cyprus 1999 will be held in Limassol, from October 3 to October 6.

Glafcos Clerides, president of the Republic of Cyprus, will officially open the event. Keynote addresses this year will be delivered by Vassos Pyrgos, the conference chairman and permanent secretary at the Ministry of Communications and Works, and Bill O'Neil, secretary-general of IMO.

The conference programme on Monday morning sees George Vassiliou, head of the Cyprus EU negotiating team, presenting a paper entitled Cyprus/EU Accession Progress covering the issues surrounding Cyprus maritime industries and the influence of the EU. This will be followed by Martin Stopford, director at Clarksons Research Studies, presenting a paper entitled Forecasting. No prizes for guessing what this one will be about.

Nicolas Pentheroudakis, chairman of the Hellenic Shipbrokers Association, is scheduled to present International brokering in the new century, before the ship finance session gets under way with contributions from Henning Winter, member of the board of management at Deutsche Shiffsbank, Pericles Panayopoulos, chairman of Attica Enterprises SA, and Hamish Norton, managing director of Lazard Freres & Co LCC.

Tuesday morning starts with a paper from Dagfinn Lunde, managing director of Intertanko, entitled The Tramp Shipowner - his role and future prospects. This is followed by Yerasimos Ventouris, director of Sougerka Maritime Company Limited, talking about Latest Developments in the Tanker Industry. Then it is the turn of George Tsavliris, president of the Cyprus Marine Environment Protection Association, to speak on Marine Environment Pollution Prevention.

The late morning session begins with a presentation from Frans Malmros of the Swedish Club on Marine Insurance. There then follows a debate entitled, ITF 'New Delhi Policy' on Flags of Convenience: Any real change? Stand by for a lively exchange of views.

There is plenty on the agenda at Maritime Cyprus to keep everybody happy. Shipping has always been a people business, and shipping people will always be found in Cyprus.