More clouds have appeared on the horizon as the Greek government seeks to sell its controlling stake in the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) and meet demands of the country’s creditors.
As the Athens government contemplates increasing taxes on shipping and many of Greece’s shipowners actively explore options to leave their home base, revenues from shipping services, so important to the national coffers, are already in decline.
With raising cash a priority for the incoming Greek government bids for the privatisation of the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) will be certainly sought in the coming weeks.
With shipping and shipping related issues likely to play an important role in government plans to raise revenues and meet the demands of creditors, Greece’s incoming leftist-led coalition government has a New Ministry, Shipping and Island Policy.
The surprisingly clear victory of out-going Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ led coalition in Greece’s 20 September election has not only trumped pollsters but has again put the world’s largest shipping community on full alert.
The atmosphere may not have been one of euphoria as over 700 delegates from around the world flew into Cyprus this past weekend to attend the 14th version of the biennial Maritime Cyprus shipping conference, but it was certainly one of great...
At first it was Cyprus, then Singapore and London, now it is Dubai and Canada, which are openly courting Greek shipowners looking for alternatives to their home base as they face an increased tax burden in future.
As part of its reforms-for-cash deal with international lenders, the Greek government has agreed deadlines for the privatisation of its two major ports, Piraeus and Thessaloniki.
Greece’s privatisation fund TAIPED has drawn up a new business plan for the utilisation of state assets, as well as ratifying the new list of pending actions that require the government’s intervention for much delayed sell-offs to proceed.
