New immigration/customs bldg. opened in Benque
In other news from the west, today, the border station in Benque Viejo got a much needed face-lift. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods and Rick Romero hit the highway this morning and filed this report.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Every day, authorities estimate approximately fifteen hundred people legally pass through the western border into Belize. So this morning immigration employees were hard at work despite the festive mood of official opening ceremonies of their new building. The new structure is six times bigger than the previous facility and easily accommodates the daily throng of visitors.
Deon Pascascio, Chairman, Border Management Agency
“In looking at the old facility, when it came, the number of people that it could manage at any one give point in time, we found that members of the public would normally be out in the rain, sun or whatever, because the interior of the building was too small to hold them. And also, with the growth tourism we have a lot of visitors coming to the country by land. And if these people are coming by land, we think we should give then better facilitation. We’re working with the agencies as well, we know that they had several constraints, so we decided that it would have been best and give the users a more pleasant experience if they were able to have a better facility that would give them more cover in terms of shade, as well as sheltering them from other elements of the weather. So we think it had to do with several things, not only for the tourism aspect, but as well for the regular users, for them to be more comfortable, and as well to assist the agencies in putting better controls in place for them to be better able to deal with the public as they pass through.”
To mark the occasion, the ceremony included cultural presentations by local children from area schools.
Work on the facility started almost two years ago. According to Prime Minister Said Musa, the building will benefit the proposed Western Free Zone project and boost the tourism industry.
Prime Minister Said Musa
“These new facilities offer the ambiance and the flexibility to attract investors and customers in the medium and long term. For those many government agencies that work here, literally on the front lines, especially immigration, customs, agriculture and the police, the new facilities will drastically improve your conditions at work, no doubt improve your productivity and reward you for the immense contribution so many of you make on behalf of our government and people. For Belize’s tourism industry, both private and public sectors, today’s opening marks another important milestone in the industry’s contribution to Belize.”
Construction of the facility was done by Julius Espat at a cost of four point five million Belize dollars and paid for by the Belize Government. Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
