Opposition concerned about decline in registered vessels

TORTOLA (CMC):

A senior member of the opposition has expressed concern that the British Overseas territory has experiencing a decline in registered vessels in recent years.

Opposition legislator Julian Fraser, while speaking at a recent sitting of the House of Assembly, said he was made aware of the statistics within the Virgin Islands Shipping Registry after making inquiries on the matter.

Fraser said he was “told that the registration was about 200 vessels every year but the figures have decreased to about 130 to 150 per year”.

The senior opposition legislator said further inquires led him to discover that another British Overseas Territory in the region – the Cayman Islands – currently registers approximately 5,000 vessels annually.

He said he believes these statistics should raise major concerns, considering that the local shipping registry was once favoured to potentially become another economic pillar for the territory when it was established years ago.

He, however, said the decline in vessel registration locally is overshadowed by the issues currently plaguing the territory’s main economic pillar – the financial services sector.