Jamaica works to become regional shipping center

Jamaica works to become regional shipping center    Jamaican officials met last week with financial and maritime industry consultants to discuss the country's ambition to grow its container transshipment port and become a maritime service center.
   The island nation's Maritime Authority issued a statement saying it is working to develop the legal and institutional framework to support a maritime industrial complex capable of providing new services such as ship management, ship brokering, chartering, ship repair, finance and insurance. In addition to a container port, Jamaica also has cruise terminals, and provides refueling and commercial officer training.
   The Maritime Authority said the goal is to expand existing services and develop its potential in the other areas.
   Jamaica's interest in the maritime sector coincides with the anticipated expansion of the Panama Canal in 2014 or 2015 that will allow more and larger vessels to cross between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. Many of the mega-ships in service or being delivered to ocean carriers cannot enter most U.S. East Coast ports because of draft and other infrastructure limitations. Jamaica and other Caribbean and Central American nations are positioning themselves as container hubs where cargo can be transferred to or from feeder ships for delivery to local ports or mother ships.
   The Maritime Authority noted that it enjoys a labor cost advantage compared to U.S. dock labor.
   'We intend to make Jamaica a one-stop shop for shipping in the Caribbean region and indeed for this hemisphere,' said Rear Adm. Peter Brady, director general of the Maritime Authority.