DA­REECE PO­LO

Se­nior Re­porter

da­reece.po­lo@guardian.co.tt

A for­mer trans­port min­is­ter un­der the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) is ap­plaud­ing a plan by T&T, Guyana and Bar­ba­dos to cre­ate a com­pa­ny that will es­tab­lish a fer­ry ser­vice be­tween the is­lands.

Chan­dresh Shar­ma made the com­ment in re­sponse to an an­nounce­ment by Guyana’s Pres­i­dent Dr Ir­faan Ali that all three Cari­com states would be em­bark­ing on a new trade-re­lat­ed project and that a com­pa­ny was formed on Thurs­day to do so.  

Speak­ing at the sign­ing of the agree­ment for the con­struc­tion of a 220-me­tre long four-lane Wis­mar Bridge in his coun­try on Fri­day, Dr Ali said the new bridge will cre­ate more op­por­tu­ni­ties for trade be­tween Brazil, Guayana and oth­er Cari­com na­tions in­clud­ing the trio that is plan­ning to in­vest in fer­ries.

Ali an­nounced that T&T, Guyana and Bar­ba­dos had formed “the first com­pa­ny ... a joint com­pa­ny that would work to the in­tro­duc­tion of a fer­ry sys­tem for pas­sen­ger and car­go be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go, Guyana and Bar­ba­dos. That would open up mas­sive op­por­tu­ni­ties!” Dr Ali said.  

Re­ply­ing to the news, Shar­ma said it was a wel­comed ini­tia­tive to­wards the Cari­com Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my (CSME) and may help to re­duce re­gion­al trav­el ex­pens­es.

“I think it’s an ex­cel­lent idea, long over­due. The cost of goods rov­ing through the is­lands–one of the huge chal­lenges we face is the time­ly de­liv­ery of goods and costs. The coun­tries com­ing to­geth­er to pur­sue such will in­crease trade, will in­crease the move­ment of goods and ser­vices. When we think of goods, we al­so have to think of the ser­vices that the goods will re­quire to reach its des­ti­na­tion and to be con­sumed as well, even if it’s goods that may be for house build­ing or in agri­cul­ture,” Shar­ma said.

He added that it has been on the Cari­com agen­da for quite some time, and notes that it may be the right move to as­sist in­di­vid­u­als who find air trav­el to be cost­ly.  

“Air trav­el has be­come very com­pet­i­tive and very ex­pen­sive and I think all of us will ben­e­fit from it. I could see the small man ben­e­fit­ing be­cause of­ten­times he can’t af­ford the more ex­pen­sive way of mov­ing his goods. I can see trades peo­ple be­ing able to go to the is­lands and work for a day or two or take their tools with them, sim­i­lar to the boat that goes to To­ba­go where ve­hi­cles can go and car­ry goods for the small hard­ware and dis­trib­u­tors if that can al­so be de­vel­oped and then we ex­pand. So, the time is right,” he said.

Fur­ther­more, Shar­ma re­spond­ed to crit­ics who may slam the Gov­ern­ment’s in­tend­ed par­tic­i­pa­tion in a new fer­ry ser­vice when there are con­stant short­falls in the in­ter-is­land sea bridge.  

“I don’t think any­one should wor­ry too much about that. The re­quire­ment to ex­pand busi­ness to make more op­por­tu­ni­ties avail­able is re­quired. The ship­ping arrange­ments be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go would have chal­lenges, like in every­where else, it’s not on­ly be­tween our two is­lands. Many oth­er places have that chal­lenge. One must ap­pre­ci­ate the arrange­ments we have be­tween Trinidad and To­ba­go are heav­i­ly sub­sidised, sim­i­lar to the wa­ter taxi, so it doesn’t earn rev­enue per say,” he said.

“For in­stance, when peo­ple go on the wa­ter taxi, the wa­ter taxi is not earn­ing mon­ey, we are high­ly sub­si­dis­ing that but, of course, it keeps ve­hi­cles off the road and it saves on the traf­fic, the pol­lu­tion and we lose less man hours. So, both have to be looked at, but you don’t need to fo­cus on­ly on To­ba­go and not ex­plore de­vel­op­ing this. The ex­pe­ri­ence from it will al­so aid To­ba­go, I’m sure. So, I can see more plus­es from it,” he added.

When Guardian Me­dia reached out to Works and Trans­port Min­is­ter Ro­han Sinanan for more de­tails about this agree­ment, he asked for time be­fore he an­swered. He said he was gath­er­ing in­for­ma­tion on the sub­ject and will ad­dress the me­dia to­day at a min­istry event. Guardian Me­dia reached out to the Min­is­ter of Pub­lic works, Trans­port and Wa­ter Re­sources in Bar­ba­dos. How­ev­er, San­tia Brad­shaw did not im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond.