The Cyprus maritime cluster remains a force to be reckoned with as positive factors, including a favourable corporate tax rate of 10%; respected ship registry (white listed on both the Paris and Tokyo MOUs on Port State Control); modern legal, accounting and banking services and a supportive, close-knit shipping community, continue to retain ex-pats and native shipping professionals alike.
Describing the impact of the financial crisis on the Cypriot shipping community, Thomas Kazakos, Director General, Cyprus Shipping Chamber (CSC), said that although times are hard, owing to shipping companies actively re-grouping their budget controls, expansion policies, refinancing and extension of ship building loans etcetera, his members have worked hard to ensure they will not need to “par down” their activities and thankfully, the CSC has not lost a single member in the last three years. “The vast majority of companies have managed to, so far, take the negative impact of the crisis as well as the freight rates scenario. Yes, we have been affected as we are a ship owning community at large but our members have become more careful in planning their daily operations,” he said.
A respected trade association, the CSC works to promote the interests of Cyprus Shipping and to further the reputation of the Cyprus flag, while also promoting and protecting the interests of its Members, on a local and international basis. A major issue for Mr Kazakos and his members is the Cyprus Tonnage Tax System (TTS), which was approved by the European Commission on 24th March 2010 and allows eligible owners, charterers and managers of both Cyprus and foreign-flagged vessels, to be taxed annually, based on the net tonnage of their vessels.
Mr Kazakos said: “The new tonnage tax is the most competitive tax of its kind in Europe, if not globally and we’ve been working to implement the new law and trying to attract new tonnage to our flag and more shipping companies to Cyprus. We’ve managed to maintain all our clientele and haven’t lost a single customer – the infrastructure in Cyprus allows them to operate with the most competitive taxation system in Europe.”
