Day: March 30, 2023

Ships flying the Cypriot flag are faced with a second Turkish embargo, Deputy Minister of Shipping Marina Hadjimanolis stressed on Wednesday, noting that there is not only an embargo on docking in Turkish ports, but Cypriot-flagged ships are prevented from transporting grain or other products from and to Ukraine in the framework of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.

In statements after a meeting with the House Committee on Transport, she pointed out that following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there was an agreement between Turkey, Ukraine and Russia with the United Nations to ensure the passage of grain from Ukraine.

“Turkey is the country that controls the ships that pass through the Black Sea and thus prevents any ship that carries the Cypriot flag or any ship managed in Cyprus from being part of this process. That’s why I have called it a second embargo,” she stressed.

It is noted that since 1987, Turkey has prohibited the docking of ships under the Cypriot flag in its ports.

The Deputy Minister said that the ban does not only apply to ships flying the Cypriot flag but also extends to ships managed by Cyprus.

Replying to questions, Hadjimanolis recalled statements made by the Cypriot President that Cyprus will not support a Turkish candidacy for the position of Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), as Ankara prevents the docking of ships under Cypriot flag in Turkish ports.

The Deputy Minister of Shipping said that Cyprus intends to be re-elected in the IMO Council for the period 2024 to 2025.

She assured that if a Turkish candidate is elected as head of the International Maritime Organization this will not affect Cyprus, as the operation of the organization is governed by regulations.

Furthermore, she noted that due to the latest international developments and sanctions, unfortunately the Cypriot fleet has been reduced.

Speaking before the House Committee, Hadjimanolis said that the fleet is reduced to 1,663 with a capacity of 22 million tons compared to 1,752 that were registered in the Cypriot registry with a capacity of 25 million tons in July 2021.

Replying to questions by MPs, she noted that both Malta and Italy have reported a drop in their registers, adding that there is no information to show that ships are leaving the Cypriot register to register in another European country.

She also cited data demonstrating the upward trend in the registration of shipping companies, which increased from 273 in 2021 to 302 in 2022.

Regarding the Deputy Ministry’s revenue, she said that it increased to pound 17.3 million from pound 16.4 million in 2021. She added that tonnage tax correspond to 50% of the total revenue.

She also said that among the priorities of the Deputy Ministry is the strengthening of the one-stop shipping center framework adding that they already began the process of its implementation.

Regarding the maritime connection between Cyprus and Greece, which was implemented last year after 21 years, she said that in 2023 there will be 22 routes, 14 from Limassol and 8 from Larnaka.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Industrial Production Index decreased 0.9% in January 2023 compared to the same month in 2022, reaching 120.9 units (base 2015=100).

According to data released Thursday by the Statistical Service of Cyprus, the manufacturing sector registered an increase of 5% compared to January 2022. An increase was also observed in the sector of mining and quarrying (26.3%). Negative changes were observed in the sectors of electricity supply (-16.9%) and water supply and materials recovery (-13.9%).

In the manufacturing sector, the most significant positive changes compared to January 2022 were observed in the manufacturing of other non-metallic mineral products (35.2%), food products, beverages and tobacco products (7.6%), textiles, wearing apparel and leather products (5.1%) and rubber and plastic products (5.0%).

The most significant negative changes were observed in the manufacturing of electronic, optical products and electrical equipment (45.5%) and the manufacturing of wood and products of wood and cork, except furniture (5.6%).

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Tezos Activates ‘Mumbai’ Upgrade Enabling More Than a Million Transactions Per Second

Following Tezos’ latest upgrade, Mumbai, anyone can deploy Smart Rollups, a novel scaling solution.

Smart Rollups enable the Tezos blockchain to scale beyond one million transactions per second without compromising on decentralization.

Additionally, developers can now build on Tezos with general purpose programming languages such as Rust, C, and C++.

BERN, Switzerland–(BUSINESS WIRE)– Tezos, a pioneering blockchain for Proof-of-Stake consensus and on-chain governance, has activated Mumbai, its thirteenth core protocol upgrade. The Mumbai upgrade introduces Smart Rollups, a new Layer 2 scaling solution built directly into the protocol, which puts Tezos at the forefront of optimistic rollup technology.

Smart Rollups enable decentralized applications (dApps) to benefit from their own dedicated hardware resources in order to process a high amount of transactions, while the integrity and security of the Smart Rollup is guaranteed by the Tezos main chain, or Layer 1.

Due to this approach, the Tezos ecosystem will be able to surpass the milestone of one million transactions per second in 2023 without sacrificing decentralization.

Secure, flexible, developer friendly

Smart Rollups come with state-of-the-art technical features, namely:

Fully decentralized and open interactive fraud proofs guarantee rollup security and integrity, provided there is at least one honest participant in the rollup validation.

A WebAssembly (WASM) execution environment allows for flexible development and deployment of a wide range of decentralized applications. Developers can now use general purpose programming languages such as Rust, C, and C++ to build applications ranging from tailor-made business solutions to public open platforms, such as an EVM-compatible chain on top of Tezos.

Advanced rollup features simplify interactions such as broadcasting from Layer 1 to all rollups, calling Layer 1 smart contracts from Layer 2, or transferring assets across layers.

New data availability solutions are possible, as Smart Rollups support custom data channels for interfacing with data providers external to the Tezos blockchain.

Lower latency, faster blockchain

Beyond rollups, Mumbai also introduces improvements to Tezos’ Layer 1. Block time is reduced from 30 to 15 seconds, which is made possible with so-called Pipelined validation. This change reduces network latency and provides a smoother user experience overall.

The protocol upgrade also includes updates to previously existing features, such as Tickets, which become more flexible by allowing direct transfers between users.

Evolution driven by the community

As with every Tezos upgrade, Mumbai has been validated and approved by the community through the Tezos blockchain’s on-chain governance process.

The activation of Mumbai marks the culmination of a months-long collaboration between developers teams and the broader Tezos community.

Experts from Nomadic Labs, Marigold, TriliTech, Oxhead Alpha, Tarides, DaiLambda, and Functori have contributed to this update, which unveils a new era of scalability and opens the door for exciting new applications to be deployed on Tezos blockchain.

Source: Cyprus News Agency