P.M. reacts to international tribunal outcome

Belmopan has reacted to a decision by an International Arbitration this week that will make government coffers eight million dollars leaner. According to a government release, the Barrow Administration is “distressed” about the ruling which resulted from a dispute between a company named NEWCO, a consortium which included Lufthansa, and the Government of Belize over a thirty year agreement signed in 2002 which allows the company to do studies in Belize about the privatisation of the Phillip Goldson International Airport. Three years later, in 2005, there was a change of heart by the Musa Administration. The concession agreement was cancelled and the Belize Airport Concession Company comprising local investors was awarded a similar agreement. The Miami tribunal began arbitration in February, and on Monday, made its ruling entitling NEWCO to a little over eight million dollars.