New Policy Governing Starting Businesses in Belize

The Investment Policy and Compliance Unit at the Ministry of Investment is upgrading how business is conducted in Belize.  Director of the Unit, Lincoln Blake told News Five today that the new policy looks at much more than just protection for investors and that Belize abides by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force.

Lincoln Blake, Dir., Investment Policy & Compliance Unit

 “It’s several legislations and regulations that would affect that specific criteria of starting a business. When you’re dealing with, for example, construction permits, you’re dealing with the legislation under the Central Building Authority. So it’s an entire legislation, and then in the case of getting credit, you deal with Central Bank, you deal with the different banking regulations, and sometimes the ways and the means of how a country allows those different investors or different individuals to access credit, so it’s more than a simple requirement; it’s a complex network of policies, regulations, and requirements. It seems it is simplified, but really and truly, it’s complex. We have amended several legislations – the banking legislation, that’s why you see that we have a lot of requirements now when you go deposit in the banks, when you go the bank to get a loan, there’s a lot of requirements now. You can’t just open a bank account like before. Those requirements are because of the criteria.”

The granting of licenses to investors also includes a background check through the Financial Intelligence Unit and InterPol.