Private sector gears up for CSME
With the impending realization of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy Belizean producers now have to contend with the reality that what was a market of a couple hundred thousand will now expand to fourteen million. This arrangement may prompt either hope or fear but one thing is certain: it will not be business as usual. Today, members of the private sector sat down with regional experts to discuss the impending CSME and the rules that will ensure that everyone is competing on a level playing field.
Jose Alpuche, Director General, Foreign Trade
?Quite frankly most of what we do, most of what we have here in Belize is already imported; imported finished product. Everything that we are doing with this interview, your camera even our clothing, most of it is imported. What we need to do is to increase the productive base in Belize. We have a vibrant productive sector in agro-industrial. We need to expand into other areas; some light manufacturing, more food processing and the prospects are quite bright. I think the only swamping we hope for is swamping of investments, inward investments in Belize and if the private sector position themselves properly, they could become a very attractive centre for production both to access the CARICOM as well as Central American markets.?
?We are a part of the CARICOM regime. We now have to look at bridging our own strategic goals, our bilateral goals one with Guatemala, with Central America, also with Mexico and incorporate that into a CARICOM regime where business will be much better in terms of sourcing materials, sourcing raw materials, sourcing inputs from the region to produce here for export to the region. The reverse can also happen in the sense that now that we are opening up markets into Central America, CARICOM businesses might also find it the right thing to invest in Belize to export into the Central American market.?
The facilitator for the two day workshop, which ends on Wednesday, is Bradford Isaacs from the CARICOM Regional Negotiating Machinery.
