National M.S.M.E. Policy Seeks to Advance Micro, Small and Medium Businesses

During its regular Tuesday meeting, the Cabinet discussed the National Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprise, or the M.S.M.E. Policy and Strategy for 2022-2025. The new policy and strategy were approved along with key recommendations and efforts to strengthen M.S.M.E.s in Belize. This national effort compliments the recent strategy to appeal for support for Belizean businesses by buying locally-produced goods and services, noting that MSMEs are responsible for about seventy percent of national employment and close to fifty percent of the country’s G.D.P.   Through the national initiatives, the government will implement the National M.S.M.E. road show between this month and November. That first-ever M.S.M.E. road show will be launched this Friday. It will spread to the six districts and the major tourist destinations.   In other Cabinet news, The Ministry of Public Utilities and Energy, through assistance from the European Union, has begun consultations to develop a National Energy Plan. This plan will seek to make Belize more energy-efficient and self-sustainable, using more renewable energy sources to meet Belize’s growing population.  And lastly in Cabinet news, as the COVID number once again subside, a stock-taking of where we stand with COVID vaccinations revealed that near the end of July, fifty-three percent of the population had received their first COVID shots. Fifty point eight percent of them were fully vaccinated and there were over two hundred thousand doses of vaccines on hand. In the children category, from ages twelve to seventeen, forty-five point eight percent had received both shots and of the children from ages five to eleven, eight percent of them were fully vaccinated.