October-December start for $100M regional ferry service

A private sector consortium launched a regional ferry service dubbed Connect Caribe that by year-end could begin a long-awaited system to link Caribbean people and goods by sea.

The service, scheduled to begin in the last quarter of 2024, will offer weekly and daily round trips, linking Barbados with Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, St Vincent, Grenada, Dominica, Antigua, Suriname, and Guyana.

Declaring itself a game changer in regional transport, Connect Caribe’s launch comes less than a month after Trinidad and Tobago confirmed that it had earmarked a ship for intra-regional ferry service connecting Port of Spain with Bridgetown and Georgetown.

Connect Caribe offers three vessels with a capacity to transport up to 8 000 passengers, cargo and manufactured goods and produce, company officials told journalists at a news conference.

The project would operate independently but in collaboration with government efforts in Guyana, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago to establish a critical maritime transport corridor, they said.

Connect Caribe is backed by an initial investment of US$50 million (BDS$100 million) by the Caribbean division of Upturn Funds, a venture capital firm with offices in Bridgetown, Dubai, United Arab Emirates and New York City.

The consortium brings together firms offering expertise in running different aspects of the ferry service, including Trinidad-based Ramps Logistics, travel firms J&S Cruises and Tours, Windward Ferries Ltd and IT firm Anthony Hinkson Consultancy.

Dr Andre Thomas, the co-founder and chief executive officer for the Caribbean region told journalists: “We actually realise that the key was finding the success equation that will make this project happen and make this project bankable and make this project profitable and add value to the men and women of the Caribbean, add value to investors, add value to shareholders.

“It became very clear to us that what we had to do was create a consortium that would be made up of key players in different sectors of the maritime industry and also to bring in an e-commerce element to it.”

The ferry company’s mission is “to provide the region with world-class transportation and logistics solutions aimed at revolutionising maritime transportation in the Caribbean”, it said.

“The strategic partners promise to bring about a new era of connectivity and accessibility, positively impacting both local communities and regional economies and opening new markets for Caribbean entrepreneurs, whilst helping to close the gap that has prevented real Caribbean integration,” it added.

Thomas declared: “We are in talks with the governments…. There is a significant discussion on how we can integrate and tackle this huge opportunity and problem. I believe that where there are problems there are opportunities. There will be significant collaboration between the service that will be done by the governments and our service.”

President and Chairman of JS Cruises and Tours and Maritime Institute of Barbados, Judeen Scantlebury, spoke of the value of the service to the region: “This new ferry service is poised to bring a multitude of benefits to each island in the region, not only will it provide reliable and efficient transportation for both locals and tourists, but it will also stimulate economic growth, promote tourism and enhance connectivity between the islands.

“I believe that this service has the potential to truly transform the way people travel throughout the region and I am passionate to be a part of this project.”

Anthony Hinkson, whose firm is in charge of the ferry’s e-commerce division, said the new initiative would benefit the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) which promotes the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the region.

“The CARICOM Single Market and Economy is intended to benefit the people of our region by providing more and better opportunities to produce and sell our goods and services and to attract investments,” said Hinkson. “It will create one large market among the participating member states.”

Outlining the challenges that the ferry is expected to help tackle, he said: “One, product awareness; second, product transport, even when [there] are goods that are produced in other territories the cost of transporting those goods from one territory to another can at time be either prohibitive in costs or prohibitive in terms of time.”

“Connect Caribe is addressing these problems through the combination of our e-commerce platform, connecting e-shops with the timely and cost-effective cargo transport capacity of our inter-island ferries.”  

Earlier this month, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali said his country had joined Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados to form a joint company that would “work for the introduction of a ferry system for passenger and cargo”.

Ali did not elaborate, but Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said with the three governments having agreed to the service, he would be allowing his country’s vessel, the Galleons Passage, a roll-on/roll-off/passenger ferry to ply the Georgetown-Port of Spain-Bridgetown route, at least initially.

 (RG)