State company to run Modern Port

A state company will be established to manage the Modern Port in Kingstown on completion of the US $200 million facility.

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves announced this while speaking at the handover of 47 housing units built at Lowmans Bay for residents of Rose Place who were living on the beachfront on or before March 30, 2019, and will be affected by the new port.

The efforts of the EC 4.8 million dollar resettlement aspect of the Port Modernisation Project culminated on Monday, January 31, when letters were given to the former Rose Place residents, confirming the offer of the lot which the residents had chosen by random selection on January 26. 

“Among the things that we have to do, is that we have to make the Port Authority different than it is,” the prime minister said, “we can’t run the port authority with the structure which you have there.”

“I made the suggestion and that suggestion has been accepted by the financiers. We will establish a company, a wholly owned state company, to run the port with quality management of an international level,” Gonsalves explained. 

And the Port Authority will deal with the regulation of the multiple ports in the country. 

He said that it is just as the Argyle International Airport (AIA) has its management, while there is the regulatory agency for Civil Aviation. 

The prime minister also commented on why the modern port will be “vital”, indicating that it is because we are an import/export country, and “in order to have a solid marine foundation and the infrastructure there too for the modern competitive post-colonial economy.”

“Right now port Kingstown, which is 60 years old, they patching it, it could fall apart any day in the week. And the one which was built down at Campden Park, we shouldn’t be patching that the way we have to patch it, and it’s too small for our purposes,” he commented. 

“…I want us to use the port project to make Kingstown, the capital city, more beautiful than ever before,” the prime minister said.

He provided an update on the project thus far. 

The first step began with Mott MacDonald consultants, who, funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), prepared a report, wherein they recommended Rose Place for the site of the modern port, and estimated a cost of US $100 million.

From there, they began to locate funding, and the United Kingdom Government, under the Caribbean Infrastructure Investment Initiative promised the equivalent of US$35 million.

While this was happening, bids were put out for the design of the port, and then Sellhorn Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH – HPC Hamburg Port Consulting did detailed designs which estimated the project at US150 million. 

The CDB agreed to lend US $100 million, therefore adding to the US$35 million from the UK Government. 

When the 1947 Admiralty charts were discovered not to have been accurate in terms of judging the amount of filling, concrete needed, the sum estimated for the execution of the plans apparently rose to US $135 million. 

When the contractors’ bid for the construction based on the Sellhorn design was done a figure closer to US $200 million emerged. 
“It means therefore we had a gap of 62 million dollars US,” between the funding from CDB and the UK government, Gonsalves stated. 

“…they say the Comrade love to beg. It’s not begging you know? You can’t just beg, it’s not begging,” he said. 

“Under the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number 17 says we must build efficacious global partnerships and developed countries have to be with us to help to mobilise finance to do things for our development.” 

Gonsalves said that they had three possible sources and the 62 million was raised from one source which remains unnamed at this point. 

It is also predicted that approximately 18 million will be spent on new equipment for the port, the funding for which is not yet determined. 

The preliminary steps, such as the Rose Place resettlement project, are said to be financed by the state.