Regional BESO director on working visit to Belize

The Regional Director of the British Executive Service Overseas, David Lewis is nearing the end of a week-long working visit to Belize. According to Lewis, his visit is to promote BESO as an alternative for local small business owners who cannot afford to pay for commercial consultants or training for their employees. So far, Lewis has met with prominent people in the business community in Belize City and San Pedro. A similar meeting is scheduled for Thursday afternoon in San Ignacio. Lewis explains, that once the arrangements are made, advisors from the United Kingdom are attached to particular establishments for training sessions or consultations anywhere from a few weeks to a maximum of six months.

David Lewis, Regional Director, BESO

“The advantage is really obvious in that the people who benefit from the visit of a volunteer advisor get very high caliber and low cost consultancy which helps them to improve their performance profitability and also creates more jobs hopefully in the longer run for Belize.”

Q: “As the regional director for the Americas, do you see your organization’s contribution to this part of the world increasing, decreasing or leveling off?”

David Lewis

“It’s certainly not leveling off and it is increasing, particularly in the non English speaking part of the world and I think Belize is becoming more Spanish speaking as well. We work in the Caribbean and in Belize we have done a number of assignments in the last two years, something like ten or twelve in various sectors both in the public sector and we’ve just received a volunteer advisor who is working with the government printer in Belmopan, but we also work in the field of agriculture, tourism, production, printing and also in hotels.”

Thursday’s meeting in Cayo will be held at the San Ignacio Hotel beginning at twelve noon. David Lewis is scheduled to leave Belize over the weekend en route to Honduras for a similar working visit.