The Municipality of Larnaca carried out the second Steering Committee Meeting on 28^th of February 2014. The event took place at the Municipal building.  More than 30 participants attended this event.

A very in-depth discussion took place during the session with all participants sharing their views on the vision of Larnaca and the Strategic Objectives for achieving it. This work was validated later during the meeting entitled “Second Steering Committee Meeting”, organized as part of the “Strategic Framework Phase” of the USUDS program.

The Mayor, Mr. Andreas Louroutziatis, at his introductory speech, welcomed participants to the second steering committee meeting of the USUDS program. The Mayor said that the first Steering Committee meeting, which took place in November 2013, was very productive and stressed that the Steering Committee is the main decision-making body during the project. He also expressed his contentment for the completeness of the Diagnostic Report.

The program’s coordinator, Mr. Eleftherios Empedocles, set forth to the Steering committee an overview of the progress of the program and the methodology used. A presentation by Dr. Constantinos Charalambous, next justified the three main goals for achieving the new vision of Larnaca, which emerged from the First Diagnostic Report. These goals revolve around the exploitation of Larnaca’s comparative advantages as a Gateway, an Energy center, and a Family city. The members of the Committee were then presented with a short video of the vision of Larnaca, as was laid out by the USUDS team. The final presentation dealt with the strategies for each of the three goals of the vision, and was presented by Mr. Eleftherios Empedoklis, Mr. Andreas Karakatsanis, and Ms. Constantina Constantinidou respectively.   

The Steering Committee Meeting concluded with a lively discussion with a great majority of the participants expressing their views.

Meeting Agenda

10:00  Arrival and registration of participants

10:15  Greeting by Andreas N. Louroutziatis, Mayor of Larnaca

10:30  Overview of the progress of the program and the methodology used. EleftheriosEmbedoklis, CEO of Larnaka Municipality

11:00 From the Diagnostic Study to Shaping the Vision. Constantinos Charalambous, Economist, Department of research and Development Director, PA College

11:30 The vision for Larnaca – short video

11:45  Coffee break 

12:00  Objectives of the strategy study

• The exploitation of comparative advantage of Larnaca as a gateway. EleftheriosEmbedoklis, CEO of Larnaka Municipality
• The exploitation of the comparative advantage of Larnaca as an energy hub. Andreas Karakatsanis, Municipal Engineer
• The exploitation of Larnaca’s comparative advantages as a ‘selected city’ for living and working in conditions of sustainable growth and development. Constantina Constantinidou, Architect / Urban Planner

12:30  Discussion

14:00  End of the meeting