Belize’s Orange Economy and Its Potential in the Region

Ivan Duque Marquez

As we said, the former Colombian President co-authored a book on the orange economy in 2013. According to Duque, the orange sector played a critical role in Colombia’s economic rebound, following the Covid-19 pandemic. He told us why he believes Belize is poised to become a leader in the creative market within the region with the right investments and government incentives.

Ivan Duque Marquez, Former President of Colombia

“I come from a country like Colombia, people when they think about Colombia they think about coffee and we have very tasty delicious coffee that I always recommend obviously. But when you look at the cultural economy, orange economy, it is larger than the coffee economy. The orange economy in Colombia is larger than many commodities that we know of, why? Because people acknowledge that when you look at heritage, museums, patrimony, heritage sites and you combine it with the arts, functional creations, with media, that is almost three point five percent of our GDP and growing, but it doesn’t happen overnight. It happens because when you combine the right incentives and you tell the movie industry, come here you will get a rebate and you start generating jobs within that economy the value triggers immediately. That is why one of the fastest growing sectors in Colombia that was crucial in the economic recovery in a post pandemic world was the orange economy and that is why for example with the incentives we created we have passed from an average twenty million investment in the movies and series production to more than three hundred million dollars. So imagine if a country like Belize combines the heritage of this amazing sites with such beautiful patrimony of this amazing greens you have in land that can be beautiful patrimony with this amazing green you have in land that can be beautiful for movie production and combine it with this amazing coral reef and beautiful ocean sites and landscapes you can make this country one of the most interesting sites for movie production in Latin America.”