Above: Jamaican and Antiguan officials in Jamaica (JIS Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Antigua and Barbuda and Jamaica are planning to collaborate in the shipping industry, the two sides said this week.

The plan is to deepen the Caribbean’s market share of the global shipping industry through ship registration services. according to Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who recently visited Jamaica.

“I am quite sure we can continue to co-ordinate our efforts and I’m sure that there are many opportunities to be exploited for our mutual benefit,” Browne said, following the delivery of the keynote address at the Caribbean Maritime Institute’s graduation ceremony at the Jamaica Conference Centre.

According to Rear Admiral Peter Brady, director general of the Maritime Authority of Jamaica, Jamaica looks to Antigua for expertise in ship registration.

That’s because Antigua currently holds the number two spot in the region in ship registration after the Bahamas.

But the Caribbean holds just 6 percent of the global registry fleet, a number that the collaboration seeks to improve.