PM Remains Optimistic About A.S.R./B.S.I. Situation

Today, when pressed about the issue once again, amid the climate that A.S.R./B.S.I. and BELCOGEN are seeking half a million dollars in compensation via a lawsuit, PM Briceño explained the reason for the indemnity. He also believes that the matter can be settled without court action.

John Briceño

Prime Minister John Briceño

“At that time when we gave the indemnity we felt that we needed to open the crop, I mean Belize needs to produce sugar and sell the sugar so we can get foreign currency and at that time B.S.I. was saying that they were considering suing the cane farmers association. And so for us to be able to open the crop as quickly as possible, I think we only shut down for less than a week, we felt that by giving an indemnity we’d be able to open up and go back to work, which is what we did. With the stevedores, we gave them one point five million dollars, so I don’t know how anybody could speak any differently. We believe that we can still sit down and talk with B.S.I. and hopefully that we can get them to move away from talking about any lawsuits.”

Reporter

“But if not, you will have to pay.”

John Briceño

“Well, we cross that bridge when it comes.  Remember B.S.I. and the Government of Belize we are partners. There are a number of requests that they have for the government, including some tax relief on investments that they want to do, something that we fully support and appreciate their interest in investing in Belize. So we believe that we can find a way to solve this amicably.”