New Policy Measure for Investment Strategy

Leroy Almendarez

On Thursday, the Ministry of Finance introduced its plan for an Investment Summit to be held in San Pedro on November third and fourth. The summit will seek to attract foreign direct investment. And one of the serious policy measures that is being added to complement the ones that already exist is the National Investment Policy and Strategy. Executive Director of the Belize Trade and Investment Development Service, Doctor Leroy Almendarez explains what this policy is about.

Dr. Leroy Almendarez, Executive Director, BELTRAIDE

“What existed before were fragmented pieces of policies and so, therefore, it created the same deficiencies and frustration; as a matter of fact, frustration index was increased. And so this policy, looking at situationally what are the present challenges, etc., we are benchmarking ourselves against similar entities. This policy will look at addressing some of the very challenges we face with ease of doing business because as the minister mentioned this morning, we are at one-thirty-nine and this does not make us very attractive. So that’s one of the things that we are looking at. This policy also has an accompanying strategy that is also about engaging and at this present time, getting feedback from the private sector because investment has to be private sector-driven.”