An interesting (even exciting) Caribbean initiative was announced as the year approached its halfway mark.

The InterAmericas Gate, an inter-port economic observatory project, was unveiled on May 11, 2021. A collaboration of four regional seaports (in French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Saint-Martin) along with the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) in Jamaica, the InterAmericas Gate will be directed by the Antilles-Guiana Interport Coordination Council (using the initials CCIAG). It will be managed by the Grand Port Maritime of (French) Guiana, which was also named leader of the group of collaborators. The CMU’s association will be through its Centre for Digital Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing. An interesting (even exciting) Caribbean initiative was announced as the year approached its halfway mark. The InterAmericas Gate, an inter-port economic observatory project, was unveiled on May 11, 2021. A collaboration of four regional seaports (in French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique and Saint-Martin) along with the Caribbean Maritime University (CMU) in Jamaica, the InterAmericas Gate will be directed by the Antilles-Guiana Interport Coordination Council (using the initials CCIAG). It will be managed by the Grand Port Maritime of (French) Guiana, which was also named leader of the group of collaborators. The CMU’s association will be through its Centre for Digital Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing. 

The InterAmericas Gate project earned the description “exciting” because of the wide range of objectives it has set for itself and the benefits that could accrue to regional shipping with the successful accomplishment of its mission.

Objectives
The stated objectives are lofty but achievable. They include:

• improving mutual knowledge of the ports of the Greater Caribbean and Guiana;

• facilitating inter-port cooperation to build responses to common challenges; and, in the long term,

• promoting the development of trade and economic exchanges between the territories of region.

This it plans to achieve by sharing reliable information between ports; pooling business intelligence resources; and, by ongoing assessment of the maritime and port economy.

“In the longer term, thanks to these comparative studies, InterAmericas Gate will provide a tool for strategic decision-making on common themes to optimize inter-port governance and increase the performance of each member,” as stated in the documentation to launch the project.

Initial priorities of the inter-port economic observatory include:

• inventory of maritime routes in the area, statistical aggregation of ports, regulatory, fiscal, customs and health developments;

• market studies for cruises, containers, bulk, cabotage, new sectors;

• socio-economic benefits, port transit costs

In addition to these priorities, the observatory’s study themes will be extended to include the environment, climate and operating techniques.

The ultimate objective is to extend the agreements to other ports in the Caribbean, Latin America and Central America, with the expectation of establishing relations that will formally associate them with the observatory.


The Mission
The economic observatory’s mission is to provide its current and future members with information, including: 

• regular update of maritime routes in the region;

• reliable, detailed and aggregated port traffic;

• a cartographic visualization tool, useful to other partners in each territory;

• bi-annual notes by sector

In this regard, the observatory will need to identify and collect a significant amount of data, including features of ports such as plans, regulations and physical characteristics. It will also need to access and pass on information about the environment, including water quality, biodiversity and ship emissions. 

Ultimately, the expectations are that InterAmericas Gate will be a significant factor in the creation of an environment conducive to the development of a sustainable business flow between the territories in the Caribbean region. It is expected to drive the establishment of about 20 systems for observation, management and response to natural hazards in the Caribbean. It is also expected to greatly assist in the development of Caribbean ecotourism. Other expected results include:

• the regression of HIV and vector-borne pathologies such as dengue, chikungunya, and leptospirosis;

• development of electricity production capabilities from geothermal energy and increasing renewable energies in the electricity mix, particularly in the member countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
Financed by Interreg Caribbean, the total cost of the project is €585,625. 

INTERREG Caribbean is an European Territorial Cooperation programme allowing operators in Guadeloupe, Guiana, Martinique and Saint-Martin to implement win-win projects with its neighbours in the Caribbean. This allowed the InterAmericas Gate project to be extended to the Greater Caribbean and made it possible to integrate an extra-community partner the CMU. —