Bz-Guat business groups join forces
The pledge was made back in September that the government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair would fund a project for businesspeople in Guatemala and Belize to explore opportunities in each other’s country. And while no money has so far been disbursed, the project came one step closer to implementation today with the formal signing of the agreement to enhance commercial linkages. President of the Belize Chamber of Commerce Mark Lizarraga says despite the political differences between the two countries, the two umbrella organisations see no reason not to proceed full speed ahead.
Mark Lizarraga, President, B.C.C.I.
“Both Chambers have taken the position that this is non-political, strictly non-political, strictly commercial. We decided early in our term that we wanted to strengthen linkages within the region. As you know, Belize holds the pro-tempore presidency of SICA, the whole region is looking to get united and we wanted to do the same thing with our Guatemalan brothers. We are leaving politics aside and we are moving ahead with business. Our focus will not be on politics, but on commerce.”
Philip Priestly, British High Commissioner
“Earlier this year an agreement was signed between Belize and Guatemala to set in place a series of confidence building measures between the two countries. As a result of that, the British Government decided that it would fund a number of projects to help that process, to support that process. We have extended support to a number of projects including a language exchange project, to a xate leaf project, and this is one of the main projects we’ll also be doing, so some are in the government public sector some in the private sector.”
Patrick Jones
“So subtly the U.K. government is trying to get these two countries with a border dispute to work together to try to solve that problem.”
Philip Priestly
“Yes indeed. We are a member of the newly established group of friends, which is a group of about ten countries which are supporting the process. The O.A.S. office, which is now established in the adjacency zone between Belize and Guatemala at Benque, is part of that process. The British Government helped to fund that also. Other countries will also be joining in this process and contributing to these various confidence building measures.”
The funds allocated to the Commercial Linkages project amount to five hundred and eighty thousand dollars. The Chambers of Commerce in Belize and Guatemala will now be required to submit programme budgets before the monies are released. Part of the project also provides for a joint Belize-Guatemala business delegation to travel to the United Kingdom to explore commercial opportunities.
