BEL opens new headquarters
After many years of renting office space on Barrack Road, Belize Electricity Limited has built itself a new home on the Northern Highway. This morning, accompanied by champagne toasts, Minister of Public Service Jose Coye cut the ribbon to officially open BEL’s new building. Even though the company is still putting on the finishing touches, the end product is impressive. Chief executive officer for BEL, Lynn Young told News Five the new structure symbolizes the company’s fresh perspective for the future.
Lynn Young, CEO, B.E.L.
“This building comes at a time when we are pushing to make significant changes in BEL and it symbolizes a new start for us. We’re going to be bringing out employees into a new environment. We were very careful to make sure the building is functional, not over expensive. The cost of the building is 3 million dollars, but is really geared towards delivering better service and putting employees in an environment where they can do that.”
Janelle Chanona
“Now all the functions of your current location will be reverted to this building here?”
Lynn Young
“That’s right. The accounting, the customer services department, the public relations department, human resources, internal auditing, that’s all going to be here. Over the last few years, what we did in each town and in Belize City is that we tried to find the convenient locations for the customers. We contracted agents to do collections and people have direct lines that they could call the office. Now that we have that in place, we can move up to a location like this, which is much more convenient. There’s much more parking, the environment’s nicer and you’re in the Caribbean Shores area which is a beautiful part of Belize.”
The last time News Five spoke to Young, he told us the company had experienced severe financial pressure as a result of a rise in the price of diesel fuel imported from Mexico. Today Young says the effect of the June rains at Mollejon has made BEL less reliant on its diesel engines and power from Mexico. As for when the anticipated Chalillo project might be coming on line, Young says the negotiations continue with the owners of the Mollejon hydroplant and while the Environmental Impact Assessment has been completed, the company has decided to do a wildlife study before going ahead with the project.
