{"id":7747,"date":"2018-12-27T12:50:50","date_gmt":"2018-12-27T17:50:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev?p=7747"},"modified":"2018-12-27T12:50:50","modified_gmt":"2018-12-27T17:50:50","slug":"cig-cuts-deal-for-port-with-cruise-lines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/cig-cuts-deal-for-port-with-cruise-lines\/","title":{"rendered":"CIG cuts deal for port with cruise lines"},"content":{"rendered":"

(CNS):\u00a0Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival Corporation have both made financial commitments towards the Cayman Islands\u2019 controversial cruise berthing project, government has revealed. The tourism ministry said\u00a0it is now in a position to issue the final tender documents to the shortlisted bidders, only one of which is partnered with the two cruise lines. Officials said that the\u00a0financing commitment will be provided from the cruise lines in partnership with the preferred bidder and the\u00a0agreement will be included in the invitation to submit final tenders that will be sent to all three remaining bidders.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am very pleased with the progress being made to move the procurement process for this project steadily ahead,\u201d said Tourism Minister Moses Kirkconnell in\u00a0a release on Sunday about the deal, reportedly signed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFormalising this agreement represents the achievement of a major milestone and is a great example of a public private partnership working for the benefit of the country. While the cruise lines had verbally confirmed their willingness to finance the CBF project, having signed agreements in place takes that commitment to another level,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The three shortlisted bidders will now be expected to submit their final bids by the end of the first quarter of 2019 and the winning bidder will be announced shortly after that, the ministry stated.\u00a0Once the preferred bidder has been approved by the Public Procurement Committee, they will be contractually obligated to undertake a number of activities, such as conducting a geotechnical survey and submitting a coral relocation plan, a dredge management plan and an environmental management plan, according to the press release.<\/p>\n

The Environmental Statement and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) will also be updated and submitted to the Environmental Assessment Board and will then go out for public consultation as part of the EIA process.<\/p>\n

The announcement that the two cruise lines had agreed to part finance the project was first revealed by Premier Alden McLaughlin on Friday evening at the event marking the arrival of the first of Cayman Airways\u2019 four new aircraft, when he said that no public money would be required to build the piers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis represents a huge vote of confidence in the Cayman Islands and in the viability of this project,\u201d McLaughlin told the audience gathered to welcome the Boeing 737 Max 8, an investment made to help continue the islands\u2019 historic overnight tourism success, which many people believe will be threatened by the decision to build the cruise berthing facility.<\/p>\n

But McLaughlin remained undeterred by the risks of undermining the lucrative stay-over side of the tourism sector, even though a large section of the community remains unconvinced of the justification for the cruise port.<\/p>\n

Describing the deal with the cruise lines as a \u201cvery significant milestone on the critical path towards the delivery of the new port facilities that this country needs to secure its economic future\u201d, the premier pointed to the figures by PricewaterhouseCoopers\u00a0in the outline business case to support the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no future in doing nothing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in building the cruise piers the experts at PwC\u00a0have told us that we can expect a net economic benefit of some $245 million plus the creation of hundreds of jobs during and after construction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those figures remain controversial because the predictions are based on unsupported data and assumptions, in particular the claims about passenger spend.\u00a0Despite the numerous unresolved issues, not least the simple logistics of where all of the passengers needed to cover the costs will go once they get here, McLaughlin said that securing the\u00a0funding and active involvement of the cruise companies was crucial to the sustainability of the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important to our many merchants, large and small, to the hundreds of people who they employ, to our taxi and tour operators, and to many, many\u00a0Caymanians who make a living directly or indirectly from cruise tourism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, there are still many questions about the number of locally owned businesses and Caymanians employed that depend solely on the cruise side of tourism, as many of the jobs are held by permit holders and many are also equally dependent on the overnight business. McLaughlin also failed to spell out the details of the \u201chundreds of jobs\u201d that would be created after construction.<\/p>\n

One of those many other unanswered questions is how many jobs and businesses will be lost in George Town as a result of the destruction of the underwater attractions in the harbour. The devastating impact that this project will have on the marine environment and the jobs and businesses at risk were also dismissed by the premier, who said that the redesign would help mitigate the destruction of marine life.<\/p>\n

Recent revelations, however, have shown that\u00a0the projected reef destruction under the new design is only 7% less when compared to the first drawings. In addition, the problems of silt and sediment killing reefs during and after construction have not been addressed.<\/p>\n

\u2026 more<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Image:\u00a0\u00a0beejees (Pixabay<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(CNS):\u00a0Royal Caribbean Cruises and Carnival Corporation have both made financial commitments towards the Cayman Islands\u2019 controversial cruise berthing project, government has revealed. The tourism ministry said\u00a0it is now in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":5564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[112],"tags":[77,144,125],"class_list":["post-7747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-newsdevelopments","tag-cayman-islands","tag-marineshipping","tag-public-procurement"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/aidaluna-cruise-ship-port-berth-beejees-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6u9Qa-20X","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5221,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/cruise-project-progresses-in-secrecy\/","url_meta":{"origin":7747,"position":0},"title":"Cruise project progresses in secrecy","author":"Michele Marius","date":"April 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"(CNS): The government is maintaining a veil of secrecy around the progress of the cruise berthing project, despite being very close to declaring a preferred bidder. Despite the massive public interest in what will be the biggest ever infrastructure project in Cayman Islands\u2019 history, the tendering process has been far\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News\/Developments"","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/08\/cruise-ship-cruiser-cruise-ship-Pixabay.jpeg?fit=1024%2C681&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10635,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/port-bid-partners-to-meet-stakeholders\/","url_meta":{"origin":7747,"position":1},"title":"Port bid partners to meet stakeholders","author":"Michele Marius","date":"October 4, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Representatives from the cruise lines and the engineering firm that are involved in the Verdant Isle group, which was selected by government to build the cruise berthing facility if it goes ahead, will be meeting with government and other stakeholders here in Cayman this week. In a press release the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News\/Developments"","block_context":{"text":"News\/Developments","link":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/category\/newsdevelopments\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/aidaluna-cruise-ship-port-berth-beejees-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/aidaluna-cruise-ship-port-berth-beejees-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/aidaluna-cruise-ship-port-berth-beejees-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/aidaluna-cruise-ship-port-berth-beejees-Pixabay.jpg?fit=1024%2C682&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5562,"url":"https:\/\/projectcalls.com\/dev\/opposition-calls-for-cayman-cruise-port-referendum\/","url_meta":{"origin":7747,"position":2},"title":"Opposition calls for Cayman cruise port referendum","author":"Michele Marius","date":"May 14, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The opposition has announced plans to spearhead a campaign to collect enough signatures from registered voters to trigger a referendum on the proposed development of cruise berthing facilities in the George Town Harbour. 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