I.D.B and Taiwan Provide Loans for Micro, Small and Medium Businesses

Ian Jones

There was a second set of loans that was supported during today’s Senate Sitting. It comes from the Inter-American Development Bank, which has implemented a global credit program. This first portion is for thirty million Belize dollars and is to support the sustainability of micro, small and medium enterprises. As part of the I.D.B. line of credit, the bank has coordinated with the International Cooperation and Development Fund of Taiwan in arranging co-financing on a parallel basis for the same purposes of the I.D.B program. This is for a line of credit of ten million Belize dollars for the recovery of these micro, small and medium enterprises after the COVID pandemic, with particular focus on women and green financing. This loan will also be accompanied by a grant component of a million Belize dollars, funded by Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to assist D.F.C to strengthen its digitization system. Following the presentation of the details of the loans, Senator for the Business Sector, Kevin Herrera rose to support the motion, as did the U.D.P’s Senator Ian Jones, but reiterated the request made by his fellow U.D.P colleague who asked for equal access for every student to the student loans.

Ian Jones, Senator, U.D.P

“We do support and applaud the government in this approach. However, we’d want to express, just as before with the education, that equal access and availability to these types of finances is across the board and it’s not politicized and I personally want to speak on it because as a young entrepreneur growing up, I had access to government financing loans similarly, and fifteen, twenty years later, the investment I did through that, it expanded into a tour company that still existed right up to COVID. So as long as there’s no political imbalance in terms of how people are able to access this type of financing, then by all means we fully support it.”

Kevin Herrera, Senator, Business Sector

Kevin Herrera

“I think that post COVID and the difficulties the economy has undergone over the previous two years, I think that this that is available to the private sector is extremely timely, similar to the motion before with respect to education. This type of facility will offer the productive sector and those in the private sector the ability to expand and stay afloat, maybe look at other areas that they could get in that could bring economic benefits not only to themselves but also to the country.

If you put this type of money into the private sector, it will also provide employment to a lot of people who need the employment and if you look at this, we’re talking about the productive sector which will inevitably and probably predominantly be in the rural areas.”