Agreement signed for airport free zone
It has been a long, slow process, but an agreement has finally been signed to establish a commercial free zone at the Philip Goldson International Airport. Using an initial four and a half acres adjacent to the runway, Free Zone International Limited, headed by Arturo Lizarraga, plans to attract companies that will trade, process and manufacture for export. They will take advantage of the tax-free environment, as well as proximity to air cargo facilities which will be developed at the P.G.I.A., which boasts non-stop flights to North and Central America, as well as the Caribbean. In June of last year, while negotiations were still in progress, I visited the site with the company’s C.E.O., who explained why the concept makes sense.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
With the economic success of the Corozal Free Zone clearly in mind, plans to set up similar operations in other parts of the country are well underway. The latest such venture is being spearheaded by this man: Arturo Lizarraga. His project is called the International Free Zone and will be based in Ladyville at what is now the B.D.F. Maritime and Airwing compound.
Arturo Lizarraga, President/CEO, Int’l Free Zone
“Ours is a fairly advanced one because of the infrastructure that’s already in place, the security, the fact that customs is here, the fact that it’s a fenced area and more importantly the expansion which we anticipate will increase passenger traffic as well.”
Within earshot of the Phillip Goldson International Airport and only a short run from the country’s main seaport, Lizarraga and his group of investors are hoping this location will become a hotbed of moneymaking ventures for businesses based in both Central America and the Caribbean.
Arturo Lizarraga
“As Belize expands its foray into the international and globalisation of markets so to speak, these different points that we have on the west of the border, down south and here in Belize, will in fact play a vital role in terms of bringing the Caribbean market-we’ve signed on to the single market economy-and the Central American market together, as well as the south eastern part of Mexico.”
“But what is important here is that we’re putting in an infrastructure for logistics and transportation, in terms of packaging, in terms of shipping, in terms of storage. We have for example, cold storage space for flowers, for fruits or whatever process that we want, there’s not enough facility in terms of infrastructure. Logistics for example loading, the management, the whole are of the logistical nightmare that we face in terms of getting the product from point A to point B, is tremendous. And we believe that the private investment can help overcome that problem and therefore help government achieve its goals in terms of trying to earn export dollars so to speak.”
This project took six years to get this far, mainly because shortly after government changed in 1998, the present administration decided to renegotiate terms of the contract that the UDP had signed with Lizarraga.
Arturo Lizarraga
“At this point in time, we don’t believe that there is a potential conflict because we’ve sat down with the government. And on numerous occasions, I must tell you it was heated, but I think we’ve come to an agreement in terms of how we’re gonna move forward, where both projects can move forward. We clearly have no desire to lose six years of investment in terms of time, but we also know that business is when everybody wins, a good business is when everybody wins.”
But while it seems central government has now signed off on the initiative, another issue looms on the horizon…based on the prospectus for the zone, any expansion plans for the airport has now been landlocked into a tiny area.
Janelle Chanona
“How can they expand if all around is the free zone area?”
Arturo Lizarraga
“Well that is not really a real conflict, because the expansion is for the strip. If you look at the strip, the strip runs in a direction where if you were coming into the airport, their area of expansion is going into the road. If you see all the bushes on the side where people have some buildings and shacks along the road, that is the area in terms of where they need to expand the strip. And if you look at the size of the building in terms of the facility that services the passengers, their access to the tarmac in terms of passenger traffic is what is their concern. I don’t see any inherent conflict in terms of the land that they need for their expansion in terms of what we need for the airport or the International Free Zone.”
Signing on behalf of the government of Belize was Budget Minister Ralph Fonseca, while chairman, Amin Hegar signed on behalf of the Belize Airports Authority. According to a government release, ninety companies have registered to do business in the new free zone. Additional commercial free zones are planned for the western border near Benque Viejo and the Toledo District.
