Social Security investments include bank deposits, loans, equity

One enterprise that is looking forward to a better year in 1999 is the Belize Social Security Board. As the only local shareholder in the Fiesta Inn the Board saw its three point two million dollar investment seriously jeopardized by the Fiesta’s recent fall into receivership. A check of the Board’s other investments shows that the approximately one hundred and eighty million dollars in Social Security Funds are spread over a wide range of assets including certificates of deposit at local banks, loans to the citrus and banana growers associations, D.F.C. and WASA, as well as equity in B.T.L., B.E.L. and BECOL. A small number of loans have also been made or are in the pipeline directly to local private sector companies in the tourism sector. The Fiesta experience would suggest that such high-risk investments might be better left to the banks.