Chamber gave advice, talked tough

Also helping to change the Prime Minister’s mind was the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which at a meeting of the National Economic Council on Wednesday, gave the Prime Minister advice … and laid out the consequences if he didn’t follow it. The Chamber’s C.E.O., Kevin Herrera, spoke to us early this afternoon, prior to the P.M.’s announcement, and outlined his organisation’s position.

Kevin Herrera, C.E.O., Belize Chamber of Commerce
“The President got up and read a prepared statement and basically what he said was that our membership were not in support of the motion as it was presented in the House, and two, we believe that the Prime Minister and the Government should explore some alternatives. One alternative that was mentioned in that meeting was that Government seemed to have successfully renegotiated the debt, has brought down the payments. They were saying that it was two point nine million dollars per year over twenty-five years and perhaps they should look seriously at whether or not the company can now afford it and also allow the current shareholders to keep their investment in U.H.S. and allow the Belize Bank to try to recover the monies that were lent to the U.H.S.”

In anticipation of the Prime Minister’s change of heart, we asked Herrera what his reaction would be if the Prime Minister withdrew his motion.

Kevin Herrera
“First of all, we need to study it. We had some specific things in the statement that went sent yesterday evening to the media, we had a number of specific requests that we had tabled. One was that he withdraws the resolution, two, was that he enters into negotiations with the Belize Bank to request some addition time—we had suggested four months. Three, is that they enter directly into discussions with these potential investors that had expressed interest, according to the P.M., and one serious interest. That they enter into negotiations with these people and see if they can get that sale going. And four, look at what collateral they have with respect to this debt and try to and try to liquidate them and try to bring down the overall amounts that are necessary to cover the U.H.S. debt. And all of this is with the intention of trying to keep tax payers out of it. That’s really our major area of contention.”

Among the dire consequences of a vote raised by the Chamber was a one-day shutdown of businesses on Friday and, more drastically, a decision to withhold G.S.T. and business taxes. According to Herrera, this was an idea whose time had come.

Kevin Herrera
“It’s not really not to pay, it’s really just to delay payments. Like I said, we are at a critical juncture, we are one day away from Government going to the National Assembly and telling all of us, telling everybody, business, workers and everybody, take on a private debt, there is no accounting here, there was no accountability within this process here, we just guaranteed it and we will back it up at your expense. It’s an extreme situation to say the least and so when we had—in consultation with our members we had asked them for feedback on several occasions and many ideas came to the fore and this was one of the ones that we felt could apply the type of pressure that we would need for government to consider what we are saying seriously. … It is somewhat of a drastic measure, but again, it’s an extreme situation that we are confronting.”

Stewart Krohn
“Kevin, several nights ago on this same newscast, Senator Godwin Hulse, who is the representative in the Senate of the business community went on national television and said that he thought it was time for the Prime Minister to resign. Is that the sentiment of the Chamber and its executive?”

Kevin Herrera
“It wasn’t discussed, it really wasn’t discussed. It did not come out, nor did we get any type of feedback, we really didn’t throw it out there as a discussion point at this point. Like I said, where we are right now, we are not trying to break government or push for resignations or have elections or that type of thing. Basically what we are doing is we’re dealing with the motion and we are pressing for good governance. It’s really to apply the type of pressure that would be necessary for government to take heed of the call from all the quarters that we have been hearing over the past month. It’s not to bring down the government at this point, it’s merely to try to get them to listen to what we are saying.”

In a release late this afternoon, the Chamber announced that in view of the withdrawal of the Prime Minister’s motion and his commitment to work toward a private sector solution, their call for a business shutdown on Friday has been cancelled. It should be noted, however, that some businesses in Belmopan will remain closed in view of the protests still slated for the nation’s capital.