Cuban house factory begins production

While the Prime Minister may just have returned from Trinidad and Mexico, today he saw one of his pet projects from his Cuba visit earlier this year swing into action. Prime Minister Musa had his first glimpse of the Cuban house factory leased from President Fidel Castro, which has been set up in Ladyville. While the construction crew is being trained, what they have already accomplished looks promising. News Five’s Janelle Chanona was there to inspect the production line.

Dickie Bradley, Minister of Housing

“The Belizean workers are currently involved in a competition with their Cuban counterparts. We are told that in Cuba, they can produce sufficient components, to deliver one house every day. The challenge to the Belizean workers is that we are going to beat that record.”

But while the Belizean workers try to beat the Cubans at their own game, the record number of people without jobs will certainly influence how many Belizeans will be able to purchase these new homes.

Said Musa, Prime Minister

“I would not deny that there’s still a substantial amount of unemployment that we have to deal with but this very act of building homes serves a dual purpose, providing shelter for our people, providing homes, much needed homes but also creates a lot of jobs.”

But if you’re not ready to buy a new Simplex house, you may be able to fix up your old one.

Said Musa

“We have launched a home improvement program whereby people can actually get loans from the housing department and indeed the development finance corporation to carry out improvement to their homes.”

The first of the Cuban designed homes will be ready within another week. The cost of a two bedroom, one bathroom hurricane resistant home is twenty-thousand dollars, a price that includes assembly and transportation of the components to the lot.

Janelle Chanona For News Five.

But that introductory offer won’t last long so contact the housing department for details soon. Financing will be reviewed on a case by case basis. The homes will not be plastered or painted but will include all plumbing and electrical wiring. A second factory will be opened in Rockville sometime next month and the Simplex Project engineer, Colwin Flowers says the Ladyville factory will expand into three eight hour shifts in the near future, so construction can be carried out around the clock.