RAMPS unveils role in shipping partnership initiative to serve the region
The Trinidad and Tobago Logistics company, RAMPS Logistics, which is currently delivering services to oil companies operating in Guyana has disclosed its involvement in a high-profile investment with US and regional partners that is expected to yield an intra-regional ferry service as a ‘big opportunity” for the company. A report published in the Trinidad and Tobago Guardian earlier this week quotes the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Shaun Rampersad, as saying that RAMPS’ is “collaborating with a consortium of privately owned companies from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Guyana to expedite the launch of an interregional ferry service” an undertaking which he described as a “big opportunity” for the company.
RAMPS, which has had to face legal issues associated with its substantive operations in Guyana has disclosed, through Rampersad, that the formal announcement of the company’s major role in ferry service follows “almost a year” of “collaborating with a consortium of privately owned companies from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, and Guyana to expedite the launch of an inter-regional ferry service.” The company which has, over time, evinced, as far as possible, an avoidance of routine media publicity in Guyana is now making headlines in Trinidad and Tobago on account of its new entrepreneurial venture. The company was due to be part of what the Guardian Report
described as a ‘regional press conference” (at the Wisdom Centre Auditorium in Barbados) where a formal announce was due to be made on the launch of the new ferry company and its services.
The Guardian report alluded to the “unveiling of a joint-venture partnership,” which it said had “led to the establishment of a new private sector-led ferry company.” Its mission, according to the Guardian report is “to provide the region with world-class transportation and logistics solutions aimed at revolutionizing maritime transportation in the Caribbean.” RAMPS’ investment in a regionally owned Ferry Service is likely to be regarded in the Caribbean as a strategically sound investment given that it comes during a period in which the ongoing process of establishing a maritime infrastructure that could play an important role in supporting the execution of the ongoing regional plan to create a regional infrastructure that will, of necessity, include a component that will be concerned with moving food produced in some parts of the region, including Guyana, to other parts of the region most affected by food security challenges.
RAMPS partners in the regional maritime venture have been named in The Guardian story as Upturn Funds Caribbean (a venture capital and advisory firm based in Barbados) and The Pleion Group Inc, a Caribbean and US-based company with offices in the USA, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad and Jamaica. The Guardian report quotes Rampersad as stating that RAMPS, in collaboration with its partners, will pioneer the ferry service tailored to the unique needs of the Caribbean region. According to the report, the investors have undertaken to “bring about a new era of connectivity and accessibility,” which it said will positively impact “both local communities and regional economies” whilst “opening new markets for Caribbean entrepreneurs” and “helping to close the gap that has prevented real Caribbean integration.” Information provided by RAMPS Logistics describes the company as “a leading provider of freight forwarding and supply chain management services.” Its profile goes on to state that it has been “offering transportation and logistics for over 30 years.” “We have been offering transportation and logistics solutions. Our customized technology and solutions support the way our customers want to do business, wherever they are in the world.”