Smooth sailing for Kingston throughout COVID-19
Published:Saturday | August 14, 2021 | 12:08 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
The acquisition of the Jamaica lll – a new utility vessel with advanced capabilities – is part of a much larger programme to enhance Jamaica’s competitiveness in the global maritime sector, in keeping with the long-term strategy for the further development of the Kingston Container Terminal, says Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) CEO Professor Gordon Shirley.
He told Wednesday’s commissioning ceremony and christening of the Jamaica lll that ongoing investments have begun to pay dividends in terms of attracting significant trans-shipment volumes to Jamaica, which have accelerated throughout the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
With a newly dredged channel, larger vessels have also been deployed to Kingston in growing numbers by the shipping lines, Shirley disclosed.
“Visits are now routinely received from vessels carrying 10- to 15-ton twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), compared to the 3.5 ton TEU’s prior to 2016 … . The competition among global tug boat services reflect the growing confidence in the port of Kingston. With larger cargo vessels visiting Kingston in greater numbers, more visits from feeder vessels have followed. Kingston has visibly become a busier maritime centre and the trend is growing,” he declared.
Professor Shirley pointed out that in light of these developments and the need to maintain the safe passage of vessels in Kingston, as well as in our other harbours, it is important that our navigational aids – buoys, beacons, top marks and lighthouses are upgraded to incorporated the latest technologies and that they have efficiently maintained.
Positive spin-off
“The safety of all the vessels traversing in and out of our harbours is dependent on it. The urgent need for the acquisition of the Jamaica lll is a direct result of these development trends occurring in the more competitive Kingston Harbour that I have described,” he explained.
A major positive spin-off of the evolution of the maritime sector in Kingston has been the increasing demand for human resources to staff the new companies that entered the expanding sector, and the PAJ is particularly pleased about this, according to Shirley.
“We have been able to retain many of our outstanding managers, seamen, engineers and technicians. We have committed to improved training and to the re-equipping of our maintenance facilities in response to these developments,” adding that the team was committed to its goal of being a beacon of excellence in the Western Hemisphere.
According to Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who delivered the keynote address, the country is well on the way to achieving that goal.
“Jamaica is the first country in the region to have a fully functional port community system with an electronically integrated sector – terminals, shipping agents, brokers, truckers and warehouses. Cargo clearance times have substantially improved and the Jamaica doing business index advanced significantly,” he noted.