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.
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.