One hundred US dollars, plus taxes - that's how much the Regional Ferry Service intends to charge for a round trip, when the service is launched. At a news conference on Tuesday, partners of Connect Caribe confirmed that they are still working out the details, but sought to clarify that the arrangement between this country, Guyana and Barbados, is in fact a separate venture. Rynessa Cutting reports.
00:00 Amid talks of a single regional ferry service, private sector group Connect Caribbean is making a distinction.
00:07 The various countries that are working on a ferry project between Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad.
00:22 We are working in the spirit of collaboration with that because that particular route in terms of moving passengers is not a route that we have chosen to do.
00:35 So the routes that we are looking at are completely different.
00:40 But Connect Caribbean says its services will help fulfil Caricom's single market vision as it will move cargo on these routes as well as other routes where it will also offer passenger ferry services.
00:51 Some of the areas that we will be venturing into, we have from Barbados, we're going into St Vincent and the Grenadines, we're going into St Lucia, we're also going into Dominica.
01:04 We're also going in, as Tori had mentioned previously in his presentation, we're looking at some of the eastern islands too as well, like St Kitts and Antigua.
01:14 The private sector consortium says the final details are still being worked out at this time as it is still in discussions with partner governments.
01:22 We are in exploratory discussions with leaders within the government of Trinidad and so that's basically where we are.
01:35 But it is expected that TNT and the wider Caribbean will soon be able to benefit from Connect Caribbean's regional ferry service.
01:44 A standard fare on our service would cost only 100 US dollars plus whatever charges come from that particular government.
01:53 So for 100 US we want you to be able to move from Barbados to Guyana, no we don't do Barbados to Guyana, I'm sorry, from Barbados to Trinidad.
02:05 We already have a projection, we want it done within the last quarter of this year but we will make an announcement.
02:14 TNT recently signed off on a cabinet decision to have the Galleons passage as part of the government to government ferry venture.
02:22 But when asked, Connect Caribbean did not disclose the names of the vessels to be used in its project.
02:28 There are three vessels that we are looking at initially.
02:32 One is a vessel that will have a capacity of around 800 passengers with 200 first class cabins and that's going to be more of a cruise ferry.
02:45 And then we have a fast ferry that would have a capacity of 435 and then we'll have a dedicated cargo vessel.
02:57 So we'll have a cargo vessel that will do four routes initially, Guyana, Suriname, Barbados and St Lucia.
03:06 Connect Caribbean combines maritime, ferry, trade and e-commerce into one company to leverage the maritime corridors for maximum economic development.
03:16 I fell in love with this project for one major reason, $8 billion in food import into the Caribbean.
03:25 If you transfer only $4 billion of this $8 billion the Caribbean people pay every time they go to the groceries to buy their food,
03:34 we bring that money back into creating local farming because the transportation infrastructure will allow it to happen.
03:40 The food cost will drop. The people in the Caribbean will have a food stability that they've never seen before.
03:49 The partners are Pleon Group Inc., Windward Ferries Ltd., Upton Funds Caribbean, Ramps Logistics, Anthony Hinkson Consultancy and JS Cruises and Tours.
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