MOBILE SITE
ACCREDITATION
LISTEN
CONTACT CV
Mr Neoklis Sylikiotis assumed office as Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism on 20 March 2012. At the time of his appointment Mr Sylikiotis was Minister of Interior, a portfolio he held since 29 February 2008. He had previously held the same post from September 2006 to July 2007 in the Council of Ministers of the late President Tassos Papadopoulos.
As Minister of Interior, Mr Sylikiotis promoted a wide range of reforms which include the radical reform of Local Self-government, the drafting of new town planning and housing policy with the introduction of new strategies to the Development Plans in order to implement social and economic policy, the modernisation of public administration and simplification of administrative processes, as well as important institutional changes that strengthen the principles of transparency, good administration and participatory democracy.
In December 2010, Mr Sylikiotis was elected as a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the AKEL political party and in 1995 as a member of the Central Committee. From 1995 and until assuming office for his first tour of duty as Minister of Interior, he was employed as a full-time official of the Central Committee, as head of the party Educational Bureau and member of the Cyprus Education Council.
He also served as a member of the AKEL International Relations Bureau, of the AKEL Rapprochement Bureau and as a member of the Secretariat of the Central Organisational Bureau of the party.
After completing his studies and upon his return to Cyprus in 1987 he worked for the United Democratic Youth Organisation (EDON), initially as head of its Student and International Relations Department and subsequently as its Central Organising Secretary.
From 1988 to 1991 he served as General Secretary of the Pancyprian Federation of Student Unions (POFEN).
Mr Sylikiotis studied Mechanical Engineering at Aachen Polytechnic in Germany. During his studies he was highly involved with the student movement. He was one of the pioneers in the founding of the Cypriot Students Association of Aachen and of the Federation of the Cypriot Students Associations in Germany, of which he served as President.
Mr Sylikiotis was born in Lemesos (Limassol) on 24 January 1959. He is married to Adoula Ioannou and they have a son.