Neophytos Papadopoulos*:«The New Deputy Ministry of Shipping: Loading…»
For us at the Deputy Ministry of Shipping, the restrictions imposed by the dire effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, presented a silver lining: the opportunity for introspection with a view to ‘self-improvement’, through an in-depth assessment of our culture, processes and future goals.
Having immersed ourselves into a number of interactive sessions of SWOT analysis we succeeded the formulation of the medium-term strategy of 2022-’24, by the end of last year. In parallel, we per- formed systematic work and bottom-up interviews that led, in the first half of this year to a Blueprint for the Deputy Ministry’s digital transformation, and a timeline of implementation of 1Q22-4Q23, with funding coming from the Recovery and Resilience Facility administered by the European Commission. In the last few months work was intensified on drafting the long-term strategy, reflecting a bold and ambitious vision which will be unveiled in October this year, together with a changed organizational structure to serve and support it.
Formulating the new organizational structure was an iterative process. It followed directly from the SWOT analysis and the medium term strategy, and adopted a two-pronged approach: One, leverage our people strengths and potential to support our goal ‘to establish a competitive sovereign registry and a top quality ship- ping ecosystem in Cyprus’, and two, promote an internal culture of knowledge (adoption of a systematic ‘lifelong’ training regime for the personnel at all levels, drafted in-house with input from the work of maritime-related intergovernmental international and regional organizations and bodies, such as IMO and EMSA, with completion projected for the end of the current year), form a clear interface with regional and international Regulators, and create interdependency between the various internal functions, in order to create a versatile organization, mitigate weaknesses at the initial stage, and ultimately turn them into strengths. To top it up, the Human Resource, Legal, Accounts and Internal Audit units, are assigned a strategic role.
Technology, through the digital transformation the Deputy Ministry will be undergoing, will be utilized to support the simplification of processes, increase effectiveness and efficiency, provide an improved customer experience through a hybrid interface, and facilitate the flow of information and assignment of projects and activities internally. Equally important will be the availability of new functionality which will allow storing and processing of data to support the administrative and supportive activity of the Registry vis-à-vis the shipping industry, and enable predictive analytics and support policy making. For the implementation of the digital transformation we will be adopting an ‘agile methodology’ which will see the delivery of electronic services to the shipping industry and internally as they are completed. Embracing all the changes in technology will be a new approach towards cybersecurity to ‘shield and protect’.
We, at the Deputy Ministry of Shipping, are confident that a new era is dawning. Stay tuned!
* (BEng, ΜΒΑ, PhD) Permanent Secretary
