HGP NIGHTLY NEWS – President Irfaan Ali says outdated ports and above-average shipping costs are ultimately hitting Caribbean consumers in their pockets, warning that the region’s failure to invest sufficiently in maritime infrastructure has become both a cost-of-living and competitiveness problem.
Addressing the opening of the Caribbean Shipping Association’s 56th Annual General Meeting, Conference and Exhibition in Georgetown on Monday, Ali said shipping costs across most Caribbean countries remain above the global average.
Citing a May 2026 International Monetary Fund working paper, the President said every Caribbean country except Jamaica pays shipping costs above the global average.
Those expenses, he argued, do not remain confined to shipping companies.
“Ultimately, high shipping costs become a cost-of-living problem for our people and a competitiveness problem for our businesses,” Ali told delegates.
The President linked some of those costs to ageing and inadequate port infrastructure across the region.
He cited a 2018 Inter-American Development Bank study which found that most Caribbean ports were already 50 years or older, while arguing that investment in modernisation has not received sufficient priority in regional budgets.
“If we look at budgets across the region, you will see that this is not a priority at the moment,” Ali said.
He is now calling on the Caribbean shipping industry to urgently develop a regional policy document capable of attracting private capital and financing from major development institutions.
Ali proposed involving the Caribbean Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and IDB Invest.
The plan, he said, should clearly identify the fiscal incentives, banking support and public-private partnership arrangements necessary to accelerate port development.
“We need to come up with a plan that allows private capital to merge with a public good,” the President said.
Ali identified high shipping costs, uneven port infrastructure, weak inter-Caribbean trade, climate-related disasters and geopolitical instability as five major challenges confronting regional shipping.
He argued that tackling those problems will require the Caribbean to move beyond discussions and establish an investment model that financial institutions and private investors can support.
The President pointed to Guyana as an example, saying private investment in shore bases, laydown yards and port facilities along the Demerara River over the past four to five years has approached or exceeded US$1 billion.
Government is also working with Bechtel on plans for a deepwater port and engaging potential investors, including US EXIM and the Qatar Investment Authority.
“You have to be aggressive. You have to be willing to open up the market. You have to be willing to bring partners together,” Ali told the gathering.
