Although it had been operating for a few months on a trial basis, the authorities decided to officially consolidate the Las Palmas-Puerto del Rosario-Arrecife maritime route this Saturday, which is operated by the Betancuria vessel, from the Fred Olsen shipping company. Thus, the regional Executive, with President Paulino Rivero at the helm; the councils of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, with their vice president, Joaquín Caraballo, and Mario Cabrera, respectively; the regional councilors, Inés Rojas and Domingo Berriel; the chamber representatives; and the mayors of Arrecife and Teguise, Manuel Fajardo and Oswaldo Betancort; in addition to the company and vessel leaders, officiated the launch of this new maritime highway.
In their speeches, on board the vessel, both the general director of Fred Olsen, Sebastián Cerezo, and the president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Paulino Rivero, agreed on "the vital importance that the promotion of communications between islands and external connectivity has for the recovery and subsequent economic development of the Canary Islands." In this sense, both celebrated the "success that this route has assured, as has been seen in its first trips between the eastern islands."
However, the most striking thing about the presentation was that both the Betancuria and this route have the vocation to transcend the maritime borders of the Canary Islands. Rivero pointed out that "the internationalization of its companies is a necessity for the Canary Islands. It is no longer a business adventure, as some initiatives have done in recent years by settling in Morocco or Cape Verde, for example. Now our future is conditioned on being able to reach a market of millions of consumers that is two steps away. For this reason, I consider it essential to be able to extend this route to Morocco, a country with which we have already had air connectivity for months through Binter."
In this sense, Cerezo acknowledged that "one of his company's great projects was to unite the islands with Morocco, although for this it was necessary to further consolidate the line between the ports of Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote." In fact, he requested "the support of institutions and businessmen to ensure that this investment is a project for the future."
Both the regional Executive and the councils and chamber institutions committed to the shipping company to "intensify their efforts to make possible the launch of a maritime line that connects the islands with the main ports of Morocco." Although a feasible option would be a Fuerteventura-Tarfaya or El Aaiún route, a connection with Agadir would be very interesting, where a mission from the Chamber of Commerce is already established, and has a much more powerful market as it is closer to cities such as Rabat, Casablanca or Marrakesh.
