Tackling the Foreign Exchange Quandary

The government’s U.S. thirty-million-dollar treasury note is a means to attract much needed foreign exchange.  The aim, according to the PM, is to attract Belizeans who hold U.S. dollar accounts overseas to “relocate this capital to a safe, fixed-income asset of the highest credit quality available in Belize.” According to the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the government should revise policies and procedures affecting the export sectors, to reverse the sharp decline in foreign currency.  Belize’s biggest foreign exchange earner is the tourism industry and with that industry at a standstill, U.S. dollars are in low supply.  Opposition Leader John Briceño says that a prudent government should focus on enhancing and transforming new industries to become a viable foreign exchange earner.

John Briceño

John Briceño, Leader of the Opposition

“We do plan to sit with the Chamber shortly. But we do believe that there are certain options and we are working on our economic plan. We will be presenting it quite shortly. We are going to make it public so that everybody can see what is it that is going into the plan, how is it that we are going to create jobs, how it is that we are going to grow the economy. How is it that we can ensure that while tourism will continue to be an important industry in this country but for us to be able to ensure that we would never be faced with this crisis again where one industry represents over forty prevent of G.D.P.  It is not that we want to reduce of what the tourism industry gives to Belize but what we have to grow the other sectors of the industry so that then tourism while it can continue to continue will not remain at forty percent but hopefully reduce to a small number so that we are not solely dependent in any one industry at any one time.”