Private investors and banks have effectively frozen funding for the long-promised intra-regional ferry service, as senior regional sources point to repeated missed deadlines stemming from lost access to vessels and outdated feasibility work – even as CARICOM governments race to build the regulatory framework they say is needed to make the venture bankable.
For now, supporters of the ferry project are pinning their hopes on a regional government initiative to use a Trinidadian vessel from as early as September — and overcome huge legal and technical hurdles.
Key industry figures have told Barbados TODAY the governments must first be able to implement the necessary protocols to ensure financiers’ investments are safe.
In a telephone interview from Trinidad, chief executive officer of the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO), Dr Patrick Antoine, said that the region, having already lost the chance to acquire a vessel that was identified for use on the ferry service due to the absence of the proposals, is at risk of losing another one if the enabling environment is not put in place urgently.
“You have to think of this as two correlated initiatives. The private sector piece is going to be funded by the private sector in the normal private sector way. For that to happen, the governments, of course, led by the heads, will need to put the enabling environment in place. It’s not trivial. It’s quite serious.
“They need to put the protocols in place to move people quickly, because that’s been a constraint in the past. We have, in the CPSO, interviewed just about everybody who has done a ferry service, or attempted a ferry service in the last three decades, including people who are no longer with us. So, we have good information. So, people moving quickly is key. We have had instances of people caught on vessels when it’s landed at ports for three and four hours; not being able to get off.”
He also referred to longer delays when cruise ships are at port in some countries, which he declined to name.
“We, the private sector and the banks and financing institutions…no one is prepared to fund this thing…this is the banks…unless they know that these protocols are put in place. This will break you. You have a bad experience like that…you are not going back. It doesn’t matter what the fare is. You are on a hot vessel, at port, the guys are burning fuel, so that any little profit they make goes away. It is really something that is key.”
The second aspect of the funding issue is the regulatory environment to allow the movement of vehicles, a feature of roll-on/roll-off ferries: “People want to move with their vehicles. That’s what it has come to between Guyana and Suriname…they move with their vehicles. Between Trinidad and Tobago, they move with their vehicles. People want to come with their vehicles. They come with it. They drive on, they drive off.”
For goods, this would make the movement of cargo in loaded lorries possible, negating the necessity to build warehouses at ports, senior regional figures have suggested.
As an associate institution of CARICOM representing the regional private sector, the CPSO has done a detailed study of operators, including those outside of CARICOM, said Dr Antoine.
The third possible obstacle is the long-standing region-wide complaint of slothful and inefficient Customs bureaucracy.
Dr Antoine said: “People need to know they are not going to be in customs with having to come back for their goods because the inspecting officer is not there; and they are not going to be for the next two weeks. So, we need a protocol on the movement of goods; we need to have pre-clearance; so when you come in, your goods [are] already cleared and you can move with it.”
The CPSO leader said two firms “actually had financing… subject to conditions”:
“One of them had actually identified a ferry, and the conditions that was supposed to be put in place were not put in place.
“We have to hold the fact that the regime was not in place, accounted for the delay. That’s on the private sector side…and Prime Minister Mottley is now saying she will led in having these arrangements put in place. They were supposed to have been put in place by Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. That didn’t happen for various reasons.”
He insisted that it was not the private sector that dropped the ball, but that the enabling environment — the government’s task — was not in place.
Several people familiar with the discussions said the regulatory issues highlighted by Dr Antoine have unfolded alongside broader commercial challenges affecting the project.
They said those challenges have included identifying a suitable vessel, responding to changing market conditions and updating commercial and financial assessments as costs and operating conditions evolved.
Those sources say a succession of launch dates announced over the past two years – including promises of cargo operations in late 2024 and passenger sailings by early 2025 – “ran ahead of what the asset base and the paperwork could support”, undermining bank confidence and reinforcing calls from financiers for current, independently validated business cases.
But the private sector leader was sceptical but “supportive” of a Trinidadian vessel being eyed by CARICOM governments for a proof of concept trial within the next three months.
Dr Antoine said: “I have to tell you at this time, the private sector is unaware of the status of the vessel, meaning, whether the vessel can actually do what is required in terms of the suitability. Secondly, whether it’s in a condition that can be pressed into service quickly. We don’t know. I am not saying it’s not. I am saying we just don’t know from where I now sit. What I do know, is that previously, the vessel that was identified, we had to say to the previous government that the vessel was essentially on dry dock. But the vessel we knew about at the time, was on dry dock.”
The CPSO will therefore have to wait for clarity from governments on the ship, he added.
But he stressed that if the ship can be deployed quickly, it would serve as a useful proof of concept:
“So, it’s not a bad thing. It will help the governments to work quickly to put the protocols I mentioned into place. So, we are very supportive, if the asset can be pressed into service, while we put the protocols in place quickly, because it will help us to prove concept, which will help to give the confidence, that the banks and the financial institutions – two of them are not in the region – that will give them the confidence, that, yes, the environment is now ripe for the investment.”
Dr Antoine said the CPSO has already submitted updated proposals for private sector financing of the ferry service to CARICOM heads.
“We have said to Prime Minister Mottley and Prime Minister Friday in St Vincent, that the two companies are updating this because conditions have changed. They have changed tremendously. Fuel’s gone up, vessels are harder to come by. So, leasing or purchasing arrangements are going to be a little higher. But we do have very credible players; and one of the players is actually working with a Mediterranean company that is a very big operator in the ferry business. So, it’s not blowing wind.”
Both players had previously identified vessels and are again searching for suitable ships.
“The thing is that these vessels are not sitting down waiting for you. If someone came tomorrow and said ‘I will start a ferry service.’ The first thing is, what vessel are you going to be using? What I do know is that we have both of them looking for vessels, and one of them is actually working with a global scout to try to find the most appropriate vessel for the service that we have. Vessels will take between three and five years to build. You can’t be starting a service waiting to build a vessel. You have to try to lease one or purchase one that’s already on the market. And that’s what’s happening now, in relation to that matter.”
Regional leaders have set a September deadline for establishing a regulatory framework to enable private sector operation of the ferry service, including mutual recognition of insurance, licences and road taxes.
Prime Minister Mia Mottley said: “I’ve undertaken the responsibility of working with colleagues to be able to get the treaty arrangements for mutual recognition of licences, insurance, so that vehicles, cargo vehicles, can literally go on and come off where possible.”
Legal and insurance harmonisation will be central to enabling vehicles and cargo to move freely between islands, Mottley said.
“This is a work in progress,” she cautioned, noting an initial geographic focus: “Some ports in the southern Caribbean, and this is the proof of concept, will first be in the southern and eastern Caribbean.” She also stressed the need to assess port infrastructure and ramp arrangements to facilitate vehicle loading and unloading.
The leaders are to consider draft legislation for a single regional maritime regulatory body designed to make the service viable.
(EJ)
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