Oceans Economy and Trade Strategies for Belize
Belize is one of three countries participating in a three-year pilot project which aims to contribute towards developing an enabling national policy and regulatory frameworks for the sustainable management of the oceans and strengthening capacities of coastal developing countries. The first phase of the project began today in Belize City where stakeholder met to review and validate information compiled for four pre-selected sectors. Two sectors will be selected for further research with the aim for consideration for the development of a National Strategy on Oceans Economy and Trade strategy. News Five’s Hipolito Novelo reports.
Hipolito Novelo, Reporting
Belize’s primary industries are agriculture and tourism. These industries mainly utilize terrestrial resources but a three year pilot project is seeking to strengthen capacities of coastal developing countries, such as Belize, in adopting and implementing oceans economy and trade strategies.
David Vivas
David Vivas, Legal Officer, UNCTAD
“The idea of the project is to help countries like Belize to seize opportunities in new sectors in the oceans economy. Most countries have been focus on the terrestrial part of their economy and therefore forgetting that in the oceans, in the seas there is a great potential. One example, Belize in 2017 received in income more than four hundred and ten million US dollars in tourism. It is growing at seven percent annually so it is a huge opportunity for the country to create employment, receive income. Belize was one the countries that explicitly showed interest in the oceans economy so it really wants to expand their boundaries pf economic activities beyond land to go and maximize benefits. You have one of the largest, the second largest coral reef.”
Entitled, “Supporting developing countries in analysing and implementing evidence-based and policy coherent Oceans Economy and Trade Strategies,” the project is being implemented by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. It will be implemented in three phases: assessment and formulation, validation and implementation, and dissemination. Focus will also be given to sustainable practices.
Marco Fugawza
Marco Fugawza, Economic Officer, UNCTAD
“Especially if you want to be active on international markets. That means that you will have to increase your production capacity and you have to make sure that this does not interfere with sustainable objectives that you will need to preserve your environment. That would be one of the biggest challenges.”
According to experts, these opportunities will be afford to the ordinary Belizeans on the street by….
David Vivas
“Creating economic opportunities to get out of poverty, to create employment and jobs, to manage the resources because they are not unlimited because we can fall into depletion and also to find new ways and new products that didn’t exist before. The idea to move over to the value chain so we don’t just produced raw materials.”
The project is valued six hundred and fifty thousand US dollars. Reporting for News Five, I am Hipolito Novelo.
