Mayor says university school coming to Larnaca

A new university department for marine science is on the cards for Larnaca, the city’s mayor Andreas Vyras said on Tuesday after a meeting with President Nikos Christodoulides.

“This has been a longstanding request for the city for years, and its positive that we had a response from our friend the president of the Republic,” Vyras said.

The mayor and members of the Larnaca development committee met Christodoulides at the presidential palace on Tuesday morning. The mayor outlined the proposal for the school “which all of the city adopts.”

The Larnaca-based facility will be called the School of Marine Sciences, Technology and Sustainable Development, should it get the green light, Vyras said.

It’s not enough to say Cyprus has a strategy for blue development, there must be actions to back this up, he added. “There cannot be a blue development strategy without a school that deals with blue development.

“We have a shipping industry in Cyprus but only offices. We don’t even have personnel to staff the ships. Today, the sea has a huge role to play for Cyprus and the EU,” Vyras said.

The mayor added that Larnaca municipality has profited from the creation of the Cyprus Marine and Maritime Institute, obtaining €30 million in funding, half from the state and the other half from the EU as part of the Horizon 2020 project.

“We have to have a continuation of this development however.”

Vyras noted the university could offer Cypriot citizens and those in neighbouring countries the opportunity to study more on what the sea could offer the economy.

He specified timeframes are already in place and a meeting is set to take place with the university next month.

“Discussions will begin with the finance and education ministries and when they have the answers, they will be able to announce them. We await two to three months from today for all the steps to begin so the university [department] can be ready.”