Cyprus Shipping Chamber (the “CSC”) turned 31 Today!!!
31 Years of Operation and Contribution to both Cyprus Shipping as well as the Economy and Society of Cyprus.
Most people that know the CSC Director General, Thomas Kazakos, will immediately associate him with Cyprus Shipping, the Shipping Chamber, Lobbying for Shipping in Cyprus and abroad.
In Cyprus, we have come to know him being the “first port of call” for any shipping or shipping related company and all the Members of the Chamber, which require assistance or advice on how Shipping operates in our country. We have seen him working “hands on” with successive Cyprus Governments for the important approval of the Cyprus Shipping Taxation system by the EU, passionately representing the Shipping Industry in Parliament (sometimes even a bit “too passionately”!!!), as well as, “being the Voice of Shipping” at the Cyprus Employers Federation (OEB), the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce (KEBE) Board of Directors and CIPA and talking “24/7” to the Media/Press…, always about Shipping!
Abroad, we have read about his active involvement at the International and European Shipowners lobbying associations, namely ICS in London and ECSA in Brussels (few of us will know that for a number of years now, he is the “longest serving” CEO of national shipowners association at these international shipping bodies, and mind you, he is not the oldest there!!!). We have come to know him as one of the first Cypriot shipping representatives that participated at shipping meetings at the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in London, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva. He has visited Brussels for meetings at the EU, more than any other place he visited in his life, meeting various EU Commissioners and Commission officials and EU Parliamentarians. He travelled from the Faroe Islands to Melbourne always to “Preach” about…. what else?…. Shipping!
All the above, might already been well known or been reported few times already.
CSN wanting to be “different” than other shipping media, decided to “interrogate” Thomas Kazakos in a completely different way. Using our close personal relationship with him (as is usually the case in Cyprus…, he is our “koumbaros”/best man) that dates decades now, we have coerced “Mr. Cyprus Shipping Lobbyist” to share with us, a personal side he hardly reveals:
