Published: St. Lucia Times – January 24, 2024.
A Caribbean private sector group plans to launch a regional ferry service by year-end that would eventually benefit several regional countries, including Saint Lucia.
The group, Connect Caribe, anticipates securing the US$50 million needed to make a modern regional cargo and ferry service a reality.
Newsroom Guyana reported that a passenger and cargo service would benefit Guyana, Barbados, Saint Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent, Grenada, Dominica, Antigua, and other eastern Caribbean islands.
Connect Caribe envisions that a cargo service would later ply the Guyana and Suriname routes.
Three vessels would be involved in weekly and daily round trips transporting up to 8,000 passengers and goods.
However, the investors have indicated that their initiative is separate from the Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago plan to start a new ferry service among them.
Dr. Andre Thomas is the chairman and chief executive officer of Upturn Funds Caribbean-Pleion Group Inc.
On Tuesday, Thomas told a news conference that the latest proposed ferry initiative would complement the planned service among Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.
“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,” he told reporters.
Thomas disclosed there would be ‘significant collaboration’ with the planned government ferry service.
He also indicated that when operational, the private sector-led ferry service would create jobs in the region, with over 200 people employed in the project’s first phase.
Tore Torsteinson, the CEO of Windward Ferries, another partner in the private sector-led ferry project, described it as a great initiative.