Govt given 15 days to decide who will run marinas

The House commerce committee on Tuesday gave the government 15 days to submit its position over which body will be responsible for overseeing Cyprus’ marinas.

Committee chairman and Disy MP Kyriakos Hadjiyiannis accused government departments of “fighting with each other” over the matter and put forth his own proposal for responsibility for marinas to be handed over to the tourism deputy ministry.

Speaking after the committee meeting, he said the government “will, at last, have to make some decisions.”

He added that the policy in question is “highly imperative”, but that “despite this, government departments are fighting with each other, they cannot reach agreements, and they don’t communicate with one another.

“The result is that there is no proposal from the government for who they want to be the competent authority that handles the huge capital of the marinas.”

With this in mind, he said “billions worth of investments” have been made in Cyprus’ marinas and that this represents “a huge prospect for maritime tourism.”

He added that should the government give the committee no response within 15 days, “we will vote on a proposal that the tourism deputy ministry be made the competent authority, with the aim of developing the conditions of this specialist sector.”

“We cannot wait with pending matters,” he said.