BNN Says Kudos to GOB on Blue Bond Initiative

The Belize Network of NGOs congratulates the Briceno administration on its blue bonds initiative which has been successfully negotiated with eighty-four percent of the holders of the super bond supporting the financial mechanism which was proposed by The Nature Conservancy.  While BNN applauds government’s effort, it is also seeking public affirmation that the blue bonds will not destabilize existing policy achievements that protect our marine resources.  This afternoon, News Five spoke with Senator Osmany Salas who represents the NGO community in the upper house.

Osmany Salas

Osmany Salas, Belize Network of NGOs

“The Belize Network of NGOs decided that it was essential for us to submit our statement, our position on the matter related to the blue bonds initiative. We congratulate the government for getting us to this point. The so-called blue bonds initiative is really a huge step in the right direction, it not only give us some much needed debt relief but it will also create substantial financing and funding for marine conservation, our blue space, and support our blue economy. So it was incumbent on BNN to issue a statement congratulating government about that, at the same time though, taking the opportunity to call for strengthened safeguarding of our marine resources. So we’ve also felt the need to mention that. We recognize now that hopefully very soon we’ll stop referring to the super bond and we’ll be able to talk about the blue bonds initiative. We recognize that that only represents about twelve percent of our debt obligations as a country, so we still have a long way to go as a country to get our external debt under control. The financial secretary yesterday pointed that out, that we were already falling off the cliff. The blue bonds initiative puts us back on the edge of that cliff. I mean that tells you a lot, it tells you that we have a long way to go yet and we still have to figure out how to deal with the eighty-eight percent of the debt that will be remaining so there’s a lot of work ahead.”