Trinidad PM confirms efforts underway to establish regional ferry system
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Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday confirmed that efforts are well advanced for a regional ferry service that would link the country with Guyana and Barbados.
Last week, Guyana’s President. Irfaan Ali said that the three countries had “formed a joint company that would work for the introduction of a ferry system for passenger and cargo between Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados”.
Ali, who was speaking at the signing ceremony for a new US$35 million Mackenzie/ Wismar Bridge, did not elaborate, but Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley, addressing the launch of the Phoenix Park Industrial Estate (PPIE) at Point Lisas in Central Trinidad, said “only recently you would have heard of the closing of discussions and a readiness to establish a regional cargo ferry service between Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.
“This is a decision which is driven by the need to move raw materials and fresh produce from the producing areas to the consumption and manufacturing areas within this sub-zone of CARICOM.”
Rowley told the audience that the “outcome of such a transportation service can only improve our food security, stimulate production across the region, create jobs and support affordable prices of the many agricultural products which we desire at our tables and in our hotels”.
Regional countries have identified both sea and air transportation as a major constraint facing the regional integration movement, CARICOM has set itself a target of reducing its multi-billion US dollar food import bill by 25 per cent by 2025.
In 2022, CARICOM approached the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for funding to establish this intra-regional ferry service with the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) being 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.
He said that in order to build confidence and develop new markets and opportunities for locally manufactured goods, the Ministry of Trade and Industry will soon finalise a Partial Scope Trade Agreement with Chile.
“This will afford an expanded market for products with the “made in Trinidad and Tobago” label. When this eventually happens it will close the chapter of building such a trading relationship as we set about it during my state visit to Chile at the invitation of President Michele Bachelet a few years ago”.
He said Port of Spain in a bid to extend and strengthen its commercial reach, has already established commercial offices in Panama, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as well as appointed Commercial Attachés in Guyana and Jamaica.
“This will assist exporters in overcoming trade barriers, entering new markets, and forging new business relationships in their respective markets,” he said.
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