Japan Hands Over Cheque to CitCo to Boost Garbage Fleet

The Belize City Council will soon acquire two garbage trucks to compliment its fleet in its sanitation department. The purchasing of the new compactor trucks will be made possible through a donation of over five hundred thousand Belize dollars from the Government of Japan. Today at City Hall, a grant contract signing ceremony was held where a cheque was officially handed over by the Japanese Ambassador to Mayor Bernard Wagner.

Bernard Wagner

Bernard Wagner, Belize City Mayor

“As you know that has been a challenge for all municipalities, especially Belize City. Belize City is a growing municipality and the level of equipment that we have clearly can’t satisfy the demands of the city. And so being able to increase our fleet from two and having an additional two really goes a long way. It started during COVID. We had the discussion in respect to their grassroots human security project and we felt that this request or donation could be captured under that grassroots program. Their program is a kusanone model which focuses on municipalities and NGOs funding projects that really alleviate poverty, alleviate human security and that sort of thing.”

Kazuhiro Iryu

Kazuhiro Iryu, Japanese Ambassador to Belize

“Today’s grant contract that we are going to sign envisions the cooperation by the Japanese government to provide funding in the amount of US two hundred sixty-nine thousand and seven hundred and forty-seven dollars, approximately Belizean five hundred and thirty-four thousand one hundred dollars under the Government of Japan’s Grant Assistance for our Grassroots and Human Security Projects.”

Since 1996, almost three point five million dollars in funding have been provided to the Government of Belize by the Japanese Government for forty-eight projects in the country.