Belize Talks Competitiveness in Trade

Dwayne Belisle

BELTRAIDE, in partnership with public and private sector partners, are celebrating National Competitiveness Month. The month of May is being used to showcase how competitiveness is being strengthened in firms, labour and government. Today, C.E.O. Dwayne Belisle shared how Ministry of Investment, Trade and Commerce, and by extension Government, is helping to push trade forward and help businesses to become competitive.

Dwayne Belisle, C.E.O., Ministry of Investment, Trade & Commerce

“The function of trade is really tied to market size and Belize has a small population of about three hundred and seventy-five thousand people compared to fourteen million residents who live within CARICOM, so with that perspective we have a vast universe that we can sell our goods to. In terms of the Government level competitiveness level, I would like to touch on three things. As you may know, the economic development council was formally legislated last year and it is now being given an executive and a formal mandate to promote competitiveness in Belize, as well as investment and promote trade. Also, in terms of lowering the transaction costs for businesses, this was a theme was hammered heavily in the workshop a few minutes ago. I think Government is doing quite a bit online to facilitate lowering costs for businesses in terms of preventing persons to having come from rural Belize to come to a town or to Belmopan or go to Belize City to access services. Thirdly, as a driver, a key driver for competitiveness is affordable financing. In that regard, over the years, the Government has been directly intervening through the Caribbean Development Bank and various lines of credit that they lend to the private sector at highly concessional rates somewhere between maybe six to eight percent as compared to twelve to fourteen percent if you go to a commercial bank.”