ACS Secretary General Rodolfo Sabonge was part of the group of panelists invited to this meeting organized by UNCTAD.

UNCTAD organized a presentation of the UNCTAD Maritime Transport Survey 2021, and its secretariat made an introduction recalling what the key determinants of maritime transport costs are and reporting on UNCTAD's recent analysis on freight rates and the evolution of transport costs over time.

Sabonge referred to the creation of a regional PPP for a ferry-type shipping service as a possible solution to help reduce the problem of high freight rates.

The Secretary General recommended “developing short sea shipping services in the form of PAX RoRo ferries that will improve intra-regional and connect with international trade routes and movement of passengers”

“We need to think out of the box because the world will not likely be the same, at least for a long while, that is why we need to look at a longer-term maritime transport and logistic strategies for the Greater Caribbean, not only for small island states, and I say this because the market will deploy vessels to the main routes, but we may have to complement what the market can offer with some induced services in countries that may not be of interest to the market", said SG Sabonge.