Shipping contributed 7 percent to Cyprus' GPD in 2017, with remittances from the sector exceeding one billion euros, according to figures announced by the island republic's relevant chamber of commerce.
The wider shipping sector in Cyprus includes roughly 4,500 office staff, while approximately 55,000 seafarers, on a yearly basis, are employed on Cypriot-flagged and Cypriot-controlled vessels.
"The shipping industry comprises possibly the only sector that supports the Cypriot economy without any state investments, one active on a global basis, controlling 2,500 ocean-going vessels," a chamber press release noted.
In terms of the specter still hanging over Cypriot shipping, namely, a continuing embargo by official Ankara against allowing Cypriot-flagged vessels from docking at Turkish ports, the island republic's shipping chamber emphasized that the EU must continue to exercise maximum pressure against to Turkey in order to lift the "illegal embargo".
