Mexico breaks ground for sports center at Marion Jones during senior official’s visit

The Marion Jones Sporting Complex will boast of a training facility courtesy of our friends from Mexico. The design of the five million Mexico Sports Center was unveiled today in the presence of a visiting Mexican delegation and local Government officials. Mexico also announced it was granting half scholarships and the opening of a high school in Toledo. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The final design for the Mexico Sports Center was unveiled this morning at the Marion Jones Sporting Complex.  The construction of the multipurpose indoors facility is the second component of a comprehensive infrastructure cooperation project for Belize.  The training complex will be built at a cost of five million U.S. dollars to be drawn from the Yucatan Fund.

Agustin Garcia-Lopez Loaeza, Executive Director, AMEXCID

Agustin Garcia-Lopez Loaeza

“The Yucatan Fund for infrastructure has been working for bilateral cooperation and we were able to come here thanks to one of the first projects in 2012, the road that allows the Chactemal Bridge between the two countries to function.  So thanks to that project we were able to come here on time and other than this wonderful sports center which of course you know that young people are formed not only intellectually but also with their minds and bodies and that’s why sports is so important for youths.  But the other project that we are going to develop is a project for a school in Toledo, an intercultural school for Belizeans that speak Mayan and English and for us it’s a great privilege to be able also to build that school.”

Both initiatives are being undertaken by the Mexican Agency for International Development Cooperation, AMEXCID.  Building these recreational facilities fosters social integration and economic development.

Project Manager, UNOPS

“The contract is a joint venture so we have Maheia’s which is the lead contractor from Belize, a local contractor and Grupo Itanime of Guatemala, that will produce the steel structures.  The total amount of the work is about two point eight million and we recently signed in December 2017, we signed the project.  So we should complete the project in a little bit more than a year, in fifteen months.  So by this time next year the project should be ready for you guys.  Regarding the structure, basically there are two courts, one for basketball and one for volleyball.  But this can be doubled thanks to telescopic bleachers and we can get two courts for basketball and two for volleyball.  So we can have up to four teams training at the same time which is quite huge.  So it will be a nice structure.”

CEO Adele Catzim, of the Ministry of Sports and Culture, spoke of the mental picture for sports in the country.  That inspiration, she says, comes from Mexico.

Adele Catzim, CEO, Ministry of Sports

Adele Catzim

“This new vision for sports in Belize is in part inspired by the sports and recreation that we see in Mexico.  I can recall the early discussions that we had which resulted in this project being developed.  It was in the discussions that were undertaken between the volleyball association, the basketball association, the ministry responsible for sports and other civil society organizations in Belize that this project was birthed.  I’m very happy that it came to fruition and the government of Mexico saw the importance of meeting our priorities for community development.”

Isani Cayetano reporting for News Five.