Guyana/T&T/Barbados company set up for regional ferry service – Pres Ali

– says will open up massive opportunities

President Dr Irfaan Ali on Friday announced that Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago have agreed to the establishment of a joint company that would lead to the introduction of a regional ferry service – a move that will bring tremendous opportunities for trade and people movement within the southern Caribbean.
“Yesterday (Thursday), Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados have formed a joint company that would work to the introduction of a ferry system for passenger and cargo between Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados. That would open up massive opportunities,” the Head of State disclosed at an event in Linden on Friday morning.
Back in May 2022, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago embarked on the setting up of a ferry service between the two countries to transport people and cargo.
During a joint press conference between President Ali and Trinidad’s Prime Minister, Keith Rowley, in Georgetown, the two nations had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in several areas.
“As we speak to you now, we are already exploring the possibility of having a cargo plus ferry facility as an experiment between Guyana and Trinidad moving people and goods and services… We cannot address any issues unless we create a platform, the vehicle that will allow us to do that and this MoU does that,” the Guyanese President had stated.

Meanwhile, regional leaders have long recognised that affordable intra-regional travel remains one of the major bugbears to the trade and movement of skilled labour within the Caribbean. Consequently, they have been working on a regional ferry network.
In 2022, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) approached the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for funding to establish this intra-regional ferry service. At the time, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) was tasked with ironing out a proposed roadmap study for a fast ferry service with an initial focus on trade between Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, and Barbados.
According to a communiqué at the end of the 43rd Regular Meeting of the Caricom Heads of Government held in July 2022 in Suriname, it was noted that this initiative falls into the myriad of measures agreed to by the Region’s leaders, to advance the reduction of the Caribbean’s food-import bill by 25 per cent by the year 2025.
During that Caricom meeting, the Heads of State were updated on the advanced discussions with the UAE for both a traditional ferry and fast ferry service for the Region.
The meeting saw the agreement for the establishment of a working group to provide oversight of the project, which will include representatives from the governments of Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the Caricom Secretariat, Caricom Private Sector Organisation (CPSO), and the CDB.

However, a subsequent document prepared by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) has identified four potential routes for an intra-regional ferry service. Guyana was only named in one of those proposed routes.
Titled, “Proposal for the implementation of a ferry service through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the Eastern Caribbean Region”, the ECLAC document proposed Trinidad as the centre of what was described as an envisaged well-connected regional port transportation system.
The ECLAC paper proposed: Route 1 – Colombia, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, T&T; Route 2 – Guyana, Suriname and T&T; Route 3 – Puerto Rico, Antigua and Barbuda, Guadeloupe and Saint Lucia; and Route 4 – Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent, Grenada and T&T.
Route 2 with Guyana was named as the most viable option by the Associate Economic Affairs Officer of ECLAC’s Infrastructure Services Unit in the International Trade and Integration Division, Diogo Aita, who prepared the proposal.
The document highlighted the challenges of air travel limitations and high costs associated with air travel in the Region. It also underscored the need for investments in port infrastructure and connectivity services especially in anticipation of increased cargo movement among member countries as Caricom pushes its 25 by 2025 agenda. (G-8)