The Orange Walk Town Council is in a serious quandary. Early this morning, its accounts at the Belize Bank were frozen…as in the Council cannot access even a dollar. Here’s the problem in a nutshell. Back in 2010, the Ministry of Finance approved a request for an overdraft facility at the Belize Bank. That request […]
There are unconfirmed reports reaching our newsroom tonight that Discovery Expeditions, a local tour company belonging to Belize City businessman David Gegg, has gone into receivership. The insolvency of the concern is rumored to be a multimillion dollar debt owed to the Atlantic Bank Limited. Difficulties in servicing the loan have resulted in General Robert […]
The government-owned Belize Telecommunications Limited will hold its annual general meeting this coming September twenty-sixth. Early word is that the company will be reporting a less than stellar performance with another drop in profits of five point five million dollars. Looking at the figures, in 2011, the gross revenue was reported at one hundred and […]
There two major events that will take place at the same time this weekend. The Carnival Road March takes place on Saturday, as does the Chamber of Commerce’s Expo Belize Marketplace which will continue on Sunday. Some eighteen thousand persons visited the expo last year, and the Chamber says it is seeing an increase in […]
Belize is getting ready to finalize a National Economic Partnership Agreement Implementation Plan. To this end, a validation workshop was held today at the Best Western Belize Biltmore Plaza. Various technicians, private sector representatives and other stakeholders gathered to analyze the different steps necessary to finalize the E.P.A., as it is referred to. The validation […]
The Stake Bank and Ocean View Grand two hundred million Belize dollar project with the Feinstein group of companies was unveiled on Wednesday. The development involves both Stake Bank and Drowned Caye and the construction of a causeway. There was support coming from stakeholders even as the National Environmental Assessment Committee was yet to pronounce […]
While there is support from government and stakeholders, the Association of Protected Areas Management Organization is not as accommodating. APAMO held its sixth annual general meeting today at the headquarters of the Belize Audubon Society. After dealing with elections, twelve executive members got down to nailing two resolutions on national issues: SATIIM’s fight against U.S. […]
The issue of the Norwegian Cruise Line project on Harvest Caye is a done deal with the blessing of the government. A Memorandum of Understanding for the undertaking of the fifty million U.S. dollar cruise tourism development project was signed in August between the G.O.B. and NCL. There was fierce objection from local stakeholders in […]
The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee held a meeting on Wednesday in Belmopan. Realistically, we should say that the government members of the PAC held a meeting, because Chairman Julius Espat and opposition member Rodwell Ferguson walked out in protest. Still, as they say, the show must go on…and it did. The four government […]
Today, the Public Accounts Committee held its first meeting since the call for its restructuring of its composition. Fireworks were expected as both sides declared that they would stand firm. Their positions are simple – the opposition members refuse to scrutinize Auditor General Reports dating back to 2003. They say their mandate is to look […]
While pro-tem PAC Chairman John Saldivar has said that all meetings of the PAC from now on will be open to the public, this one wasn’t. The media wasn’t even allowed into the offices of the National Assembly, much less anywhere the committee room. Prime Minister Dean Barrow had said that meetings would be public, […]
Salud Mesoamerica 2015, a regional health initiative being carried out by the Inter-American Development Bank with funding from a number of charitable organizations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, met with Ministry of Health officials in Belize recently. The purpose of the program is to improve access, usage and quality of maternal, infant, child […]
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is one of the most underrated yet important group that promotes and fights for good governance. The PAC makes judgments on government spending by examining the Auditor General’s reports. For at least a decade, mischief, poor accounting records, and missing files have plagued government departments and ministries, but the PAC […]
The Government of Belize established the National Bank of Belize in April 2013. NBBL was formed primarily to provide concessionary credit to teachers, public officers and needy Belizeans. The state-owned institution is now set to open its doors, and the House has asked the Senate for approval of twenty-million dollars in capitalization. That matter was […]
A recent decision by the Caribbean Court of Justice ended before the House of Representatives when the government put forward a motion targeting the former prime minister and the then attorney general. At the Senate meeting on Monday, the motion was also debated. But there’s another side to the litigation story – the side which […]
This morning the Senate met in Belmopan to debate and vote on bills and motions passed through the House this past Wednesday. One of the financial bills up for approval is a loan to government from the Caribbean Development Bank. The loan is in the amount of five point two U.S. million dollars to be […]
The Customs and Excise Duties Amendment Bill was one of the thirteen bills tabled at the House of Representatives on Wednesday. The bill essentially increases the import duty on flour from twenty-five percent to one hundred percent. Earlier in the year, when bakers were allowed to import freely, they enjoyed a substantial cost reduction on […]
There were over a dozen bills passed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. You wouldn’t realize that since most of the day was spent discussing a Caribbean Court of Justice ruling. But among the bills was one concerning flour which was passed and allows for the free importation of flour. Anyone could import flour […]
The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives is the body tasked with examining and reporting on the monies spent by government. That’s a big job and an important – some would say critically important one. But the reality is that the structure of the P.A.C. ensures that the party in government spending the […]
The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Article four consultation with Belize and the results were released earlier this week. The IMF says the restructuring of the bond brought substantial cash-flow relief mounting to one hundred and thirty U.S. dollars over the next five years. But it also said (QUOTE) “The […]
A U.S. thirty thousand dollar agreement was signed today in Belmopan to provide support training to the Belize Disaster and Rescue Response, BDARRT. A team of volunteers will benefit from the training to strengthen their capacity to provide efficient services in times of disasters. The agreement was signed between the United States Agency for International […]
The Prime Minister signed a Statutory Instrument (S.I.) on June twentieth that has caused some backlash from the Opposition. A section of regulations thirty three in the Exchange Control (Amendment) Regulations 2013 was repealed. The Prime Minister replaced it with a section that reads, “Nothing in these regulations shall apply to the Government of Belize […]
On Tuesday night, we gave you the numbers that showed most industries were increasing in production up to 2012. Tonight the figures released from the Statistical Institute of Belize show that growth has slowed significantly. For January to March 2013, SIB indicates that the economy had contracted by a negative point five percent, during the […]
On the economic front, the Statistical Institute of Belize (S.I.B.) is reporting that Belize’s economy grew by two point four percent in the third quarter of 2012 when compared to the corresponding period in 2011. That places the growth rate for the first nine months of 2012 at five point eight percent. The biggest improvement […]
Prime Minister Dean Barrow is winding down an official one week visit to the United Kingdom. PM Barrow’s itinerary included an audience with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. He addressed trade and investment with financiers and had meetings with the Mayor of London, Alderman Roger Gifford, as well with the UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague. […]
