C.E.O. Mike Singh Gives Update on Harvest Caye Development

Mike Singh

The Stake Bank tourism project remains on hold indefinitely while developer Mike Feinstein and FSTV are entangled in a lawsuit regarding the proposed project.  Prime Minister Barrow has since gone on record to say that there isn’t much that government can do to resolve the issue since it is a legal matter presently before the courts.  This morning, C.E.O. Mike Singh said that government’s intervention could result in yet another lawsuit which can ultimately saddle Belizean taxpayers with another settlement.

Mike Singh, C.E.O., Ministry of Trade & Investment

“On the Stake Bank issue, there is very little government can do. We have inherited—this government at least has inherited—an arrangement that was extremely messy in the past. You would recall the days of the lawsuits flying back and forth between the Port of Belize and Stake Bank and FSTV. At this point, Mister Feinstein has put forward his project, government has endorsed it; we’ve even gone to the point of passing a legislation in the House to enable it to happen. Immediately we were served with a lawsuit from FSTV challenging us to do that. And now Mister Feinstein is now suing FSTV and the government. So it is a very difficult situation. My take on it is that unless the parties agree to sit down together and work towards what is best for Belize, I don’t know what much government can do. Because the minute government sticks its hand in there, there is a lawsuit that is going to fly and we have to decide what we are going to do with that. I believe that…and I spent quite a bit of time in the past with the then solicitor general looking at possible ways in which the current contract with FSTV could be modified or challenged. And there is very little; legally there is very little. It’s could be said that it is a hindrance against competition but that’s a very difficult thing for you to ascertain in the court of law. And then would government really want to do something that bold and that’s going to end up saddling the Belizean people with yet another settlement? I think that’s a difficult decision.”