musical chairs when it comes to the construction of a port for cruise ship
berthing.
Enough already.
First there was an agreement with Atlantic Star made by the
previous Government administration. But when the United Democratic Party took
over, its members signed a port deal with Dart Enterprise Construction Company.
That fell through and then a deal was made with the Florida-based operation of
GLF Corporation. The agreement with GLF has been terminated.
Now we have an announcement that China Harbour Engineering
will develop and run the port.
We hope we can now sit down and quit playing this maddening
game.
If the port is going to be a done deal, it needs to get
done; sooner rather than later.
And if a company is willing to provide the financing and
technical designs for the project, it deserves something out of the deal.
So it’s not unreasonable to expect that China Harbour would
be part of the port’s management.
The deal still has to be vetted by the Central Tenders
Committee.
If government is serious about putting a cruise berthing
port in George Town it needs to get the ball rolling.
We have watched as retailers have continued to close in
George Town because of a lack of customers.
The port has been touted as a saviour for the cruise tourism
market of our Tourism Industry because it will be able to lure larger cruise
ships that carry more people.
China Harbour is also slated to improve the Spotts Jetty,
something that also should have been addressed years ago. The dock there is
used when weather is too bad to allow tendering in George Town harbour.
Frankly, it’s an accident waiting to happen.
The company is also tasked with developing a cruise ship
pier at the Cayman Turtle Farm in West Bay.
Time is of the essence for all of the projects with which
China Harbour is tasked.
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