Guyana signs on for ferry service linking Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC ):

The Guyana government Friday said it would participate in a regional ferry service that would link the country with Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.

“Yesterday, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Barbados formed a joint company that would work for the introduction of a ferry system for passenger and cargo between Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Barbados,” President Irfaan Ali announced as the signing ceremony for a new US$35-million Mackenzie/Wismar Bridge in Region 10 (Upper Demerara- Berbice) to be constructed by the China Railway Construction Corporation.

Ali gave no further details regarding the ferry service even 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, the 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.

Meanwhile, Ali said the new four lane highway being undertaken by the Chinese company that is also constructing the new GUY$260-million (One Guyana dollar=US$0.004 cents) crossing over the Demerara River to bridge Regions Three and Four, must be completed within a two-year timeframe in order to support the increased number of vehicular crossings in the mining town of Linden.