Four black marks for shipping

A NEW study of 104 flag states around the world reveals that open registries or so-called Flags of Convenience (FoC), including Cyprus, perform no worse than their closed registry counterparts.

Details of the study, published in the shipping journal TradeWinds, show that flags classified as FoCs by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), such as Panama and Bermuda, come up cleaner than countries like Australia and the US.
Bermuda was one of six that won a perfect score of zero in the study carried out by the Round Table of Shipping Associations by avoiding all of a set of 18 negative performance indicators that were the basis of the review. The UK and the Isle of Man also won perfect scores.

TradeWinds said that among the top five countries that the ITF considers FOCs, Liberia and the Bahamas had only one black mark each. Cyprus had four, Malta had six, and Panama had seven. Seven is close to the average score for the 104 countries rated.

Most of the closed registries reviewed were awarded one or more black marks. These included Australia (4), Canada (7), Finland (2), France (1), Germany (1), Greece (1), Italy (2), Japan (1), New Zealand (5), Spain (5), Sweden (2) and the US (4).

Albania scored worst with 15 out of 18 negative points closely followed by Bolivia, Honduras and Sao Tome & Principe (14 points). Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Myanmar and Turkey all scored 10.

The Round Table comprises the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), the International Shipping Federation (ISF), Bimco, Intertanko and Intercargo. In rating the flag states, the organisation used international blacklists and white lists, non-ratifications of major conventions, the registered fleet’s average age, and other criteria.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.