CARICOM has agreed to go ahead with the proposed inter-island fast ferry service.
Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said this was among some of the benefits of the recent CARICOM summit in Suriname.
She said some of the benefits include the inter-island ferry service; the opening up of the charter of the Council of Legal Education in order to allow persons with external law degrees to have access to legal education within the region; the possible extension of a planned gas line to Barbados to other CARICOM countries; and the offer (by Brazil) to establish a model farm in Trinidad.
Persad-Bissessar said, “we received the support of other governments who will be willing to facilitate the ferry service amid claims that CARICOM is in crisis.”
She said the ferry service will be placed under the Ministry of Transport.
On the question of an offer by Brazil to establish a model farm in CARICOM, Persad-Bissessar said the heads of government agreed that it should be placed in Trinidad and Tobago.
On the planned gas line from Trinidad and Tobago to Barbados, the prime minister said there was dissatisfaction over it at CARICOM level.
“There were some of the view who thought we would be discriminating against other CARICOM countries,” she said.
But she pointed out that this was only phase one and it is the intention to take it to other CARICOM countries.
