MoC to create int’l maritime tech, innovation center on Syros

The Cyclades island of Syros, which hosts the largest Greek ship-repair and ship-building unit outside the country’s mainland, is the site for a proposed international maritime technology and innovation center, with a relevant memorandum of cooperation signed this week by the South Aegean Regional government, multinational Cisco and the Onex Neorion Shipyards.

The MoC was signed on Thursday at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron) by the Regional Governor for the South Aegean, G. Hatzimarkos, Cisco’s CEO for Greece, Cyprus, Malta & Portugal, A. Tsiboukis, and ONEX Neorion Shipyards President and CEO P. Xenokostas, in the presence of several top government officials and foreign diplomats.

The intent to create such as center, part of ever-increasing efforts by the Greek shipping and maritime community to achieve a “digital transformation” of the entire sector, was announced last December by the IT giant, in partnership with the shipyard on Syros, itself of the recent “success stories” in the country.

The Neorion Shipyard flirted with closure for the past several years, burdened accumulated losses and debt, before its successful privatization and assumption of its management by ONEX.

The goal of such a future center is to offer shipping and maritime business access to a wide array of technological tools in order to boost their financial viability and reduce their impact on the environment.