EU Ambassador meets with stakeholders to discuss 2014-2020 bilateral programs

Paola Amadei

Ambassador Amadei has been in Belize since Monday and will leave the country on Friday. Aside from her work with the Kolbe Foundation, she is having discussions on the European Union’s bilateral program for the 2014-2020. In this regard Amadei is meeting stakeholders including government and civil society. One project in Belize says Ambassador Amadei is focused on the sugar cane industry and that over seventy-two million Euros—the equivalent of approximately one hundred million U.S. dollars—has been invested in the project. 

Paola Amadei, E.U. Ambassador

“This is a very important moment for our bilateral cooperation relation between E.U. and Belize and we are working hard on it. We are also, as part of the visit, this afternoon (we are) going to be having the laying of the first stone for the new SIRDI infrastructure in Orange Walk. It is part of the sugar project that the E.U. is founding in Belize. It is a program that all together has received seventy-two million Euros. I leave to you the calculation in Belizean dollars. And in these phase, we are supporting SIRDI and the technical assistance to farmers. And we are also providing through CDB and DFC credits to the farmers in order for them to increase their production and their productivity and to make Belize sugar Industry better able to compete internationally.”