GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana's government has confirmed that the company responsible for the new ferry service among Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago has been incorporated.
Galleons Passage (Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Finance)Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Anil Nandlall, SC, said the company – Cari Cargo Inc – will support the venture to facilitate the easier movement of goods and people across the three countries.
Nandlall said the company has directors from all three countries.
“The company that will carry out this venture has been incorporated in Guyana,” Nandlall said on his weekly ‘Issues in the News’ programme on Tuesday night, adding “the three countries are executing a pilot and once it is successful, the intent is to expand it across the region”.
The Trinidad and Tobago owned vessel, the Galleons Passage, will be used to ply the route as regional countries have identified both sea and air transportation as a major constraint facing the regional integration movement, CARICOM, that 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.
Last month, a team of technical officials began visiting the three CARICOM countries to inspect port infrastructure as efforts continued to launch a standard transportation ferry system.
Technical officers, and other stakeholders met in Port of Spainlast month to discuss the inter-regional ferry system and highlighted each country’s position and perspective.
“An inspection of the Galleon Passage in Port of Spain was conducted by ministers and technical officials followed by discussions that centered on the other areas of importance to the proposal for the common transportation system such as plant quarantine, including Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Matters and immigration, and Custom for the movement of people and goods for trade. A system for pre-clearance was also proposed for implementation,” a government statement said then.
“A target date not exceeding two months was agreed to by all participants to complete the work of pre-clearance procedures for immigration, customs, and plant quarantine. The team agreed to work constantly to make the ferry service a reality as soon as possible,” the statement added.
