Canadian firm wins bid for construction at Port Zante
2017, March 1: The government of St. Kitts announced plans to construct a new cruise pier at Port Zante, capable of accommodating Oasis class ships.
The announcement was made to the news media at the end of last year (December 5, 2016) in Basseterre’s Ocean Terrace Inn, at an event hosted by the St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA).
Construction of the new pier should take 12 to 18 months and is expected to be ready and operational for the 2018-2019 cruise season. The port will then have the capacity to dock four mega cruise ships simultaneously with the use of the two piers. Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC)* is partnering with the government of St. Kitts and Nevis to build the facility, Basseterre’s second cruise pier.
Development plans announced at the event for the port also include stabilization of the bulkhead at the cargo terminal. Details of the projects were presented by SCASPA’s Chief Executive Officer, Denzil James, in the presence of the country’s government minister with responsibility SCASPA, Ian Liburd; and, the Minister of Tourism, Lindsay F. Grant, among other port officials and representatives of the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC).
Minister Liburd formally announced that the Federal Cabinet of St. Kitts and Nevis and the Board of Directors of the St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports had accepted the proposals for the construction of the second cruise pier at Port Zante. He also said that the CCC, as the preferred bidder, would be responsible for the design, construction and procurement of financing. SCASPA, he said, will be engaging suitably qualified financial transaction consultants and legal and policy advisory firms to work on its behalf during the negotiations to finalize the contracts.
“We are already accommodating the largest vessels that are plying the seas today but as new and larger vessels come online the new, enhanced ports will capture their itinerary calls… and of course a second cruise pier will position St. Kitts to be the recipient of those larger cruise vessels,” Minister Liburd said.
He said that, despite the construction of the new cruise pier he still saw a need for even more berthing facilities, given projections for continuing increases in passengers over foreseeable cruise seasons.
CCC’s Regional Director for the Caribbean and Central America, Luc Allary, spoke of the corporation’s extensive record of providing technical and financial assistance for similar projects, facilitated through government-to-government arrangements.
Cruise passenger projections showed St. Kitts’ figures climbing steadily and impressively for a destination its size; 1.15 million passengers projected for 2018; 1.73 million for 2019; and, 1.96 million passengers for 2020. []
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* The Canadian Commercial Corporation is a crown corporation of the Government of Canada and acts as Canada’s international contracting and procurement agency. It reports to the Canadian Parliament through the country’s Minister of International Trade. Established in 1946 to assist in the post-war reconstruction of Europe, its mandate is ‘to assist in the development of trade between Canada and other nations and to assist persons in Canada to obtain goods or commodities from outside Canada, and to dispose of goods and commodities that are available for export from Canada.’ CCC connects government buyers with Canadian expertise through the negotiation and execution of government-to-government contracts. []
