With the entire eastern coast of our country bounded by the Caribbean Sea, our port facilities play a key role in both the importation and exportation of goods. With security and development in mind, today the Belize Port Authority pulled together the various agencies which use the ports to see how to foster a positive […]
Shares in Belize Water Services Limited are now available for purchase by Belizeans. According to a release from the government press office, thirty-three million ordinary shares, or eighty-two point six-eight percent of the recently repurchased shares from CASCAL are now available from the Central Bank or the Ministry of Finance. Shares are being sold for […]
It’s an issue that’s been a hot topic in the business community: taxes and the proposed General Sales Tax set for imposition in April 2006. Today, the tourism industry, by way of the Belize Hotel Association, was the first to publicly broach the subject and its ramifications for investors and visitors. Janelle Chanona, Reporting Today, […]
The last two months have not been good for Belize’s tourism industry. On October twenty-second, twenty-eight year old Abigail Brinkman lost her life when she and three other tourists tried to swim to a nearby caye after their boat experienced engine trouble. Then on November thirteenth, a backpacker, twenty year old Julia Armstrong Minard, was […]
It may or may not have been due to pressure from the Association for Concerned Belizeans last week, but Keith Arnold is stepping down as head of the Financial Intelligence Unit. News Five has obtained a letter sent by Arnold to Governor General Sir Colville Young, dated November sixteenth, in which Arnold says “Based on […]
The B.E.L. bombshell of yet another hike in rates seems to have caught everyone by surprise… everyone except the folks at the Public Utilities Commission. According to chairman Dr. Gilly Canton, during the full tariff review process that brought new rates into effect on July first, a contingency clause, called a threshold event, was incorporated […]
In light of the most recent chapters of the bus wars, the brutal reality of the importance of the country’s transport system is now at the forefront of the government’s consciousness… and tonight there is news to report regarding the future of the Novelo’s Bus Company. Reliable sources tell News Five that there is a […]
With a price tag of between thirty-five and forty million U.S. dollars, the Chalillo hydroelectric project is perhaps the largest private undertaking in Belize’s history. Today that facility was officially commissioned in a ceremony at the site, which straddles the Macal River and connects the Mountain Pine Ridge and Chiquibul Forest Reserves. And while the […]
It is sure be one of the highlights at tomorrow’s meeting of the House of Representatives at the National Assembly in Belmopan: the G.S.T. or Goods and Services Tax. By the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance Jose Coye’s own admission, the G.S.T. is VAT, Valued Added Tax, just with another name. This […]
With so many recent hikes in the cost of imported petroleum products, we were beginning to think that the laws of economic gravity had abandoned us. Not so. Having spiked at ten dollars per gallon on October eighteenth, the price of premium gasoline has, as of yesterday, retreated to nine twenty-six. Regular is down seventy-nine […]
While the big news concerning Cabinet is its two new members, that body’s last meeting prior to its realignment produced some significant decisions. According to a government release, Cabinet has approved in principle to introduce G.S.T., which means either Goods and Services Tax or General Sales Tax. But a return to the VAT, a levy […]
And while cheaper diesel will not do much to make the sugar industry more viable, the British government will give the Sugar Industry Control Board forty-six thousand pounds to study ways to make the industry more profitable in the face of reduced sugar preferences from the European Union. The E.U. is Belize’s biggest customer for […]
This morning the Ministry of Trade made a presentation to the members of the Belize Tourism Industry Association on the likely impact of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy. As in most CARICOM countries, those in the audience discovered that with only two months until implementation, we are woefully unaware of what the C.S.M.E. holds […]
And while Belize seeks relief from Venezuela, back at home at Spanish Lookout there is some progress to report on our as yet unmeasured petroleum reserves. According to Sheila McCaffrey, director of Belize Natural Energy, a mini tank farm is now being completed at the site of their first well and flow testing will begin […]
Late this evening, the government announced that it is extending the deadline of its B.T.L. share offering. The shares will now be available for an additional two weeks, until November eleventh. Although payment was originally restricted to U.S. dollars in U.S. cheque form only, the Central Bank has changed that position and is now allowing […]
Belizean and Caribbean banana growers suffered another setback today as the World Trade Organization has ruled against the revised tariff proposed by the European Union on Latin American bananas. The W.T.O. said that the tariff of one hundred and eighty-seven Euros per ton was still too high to allow fair competition from South and Central […]
Hurricane Wilma did not make landfall in Belize, but it did hit us in terms of tourism revenue when cruise ships stayed away. Jacqueline Woods spoke with a representative from the Belize Tourism Board today to find out what kind of damage was done. Jacqueline Woods, Reporting This week five cruise ships were scheduled to […]
For many Belizeans, a trip to Belmopan to conduct government business means getting caught up in a lot of red tape… But soon it could simply mean going online. And to help Belizeans learn the concept of E-Government, a new computer lab has been established with the assistance of Taiwan. Janelle Chanona, Reporting This morning […]
Viewers may recall that all week we here at News Five have been doing our best to take up government’s offer and purchase one hundred shares in Belize Telecommunications Limited. On Monday, we tried to pay for those shares in U.S. cash, as specified in the prospectus, but the Central Bank turned us down, saying […]
The Central Bank of Belize today provided some clarification on how Belizeans can take advantage of Government’s offer to sell shares in Belize Telecommunications Limited. As we reported in last night’s newscast, U.S. cash is not acceptable as a mode of payment. This was confirmed today by Central Bank Governor Sidney Campbell who explained to […]
It seemed like a half-hearted effort to begin with… and some bizarre events today strongly suggest that the Government of Belize really does not want Belizeans to own shares in Belize Telecommunications Limited. Our suspicions were initially aroused when G.O.B. announced that the offer to sell five percent of the company’s shares to Belizeans was […]
There’s good news and bad news tonight for inflation weary consumers. The bad news is that gasoline has finally reached the shock inducing price of ten dollars per gallon. The good news is that according to Government, the pump price would have been much higher if Belmopan had not intervened to absorb some of the […]
Anyone interested in purchasing the B.T.L. shares being offered by the Government of Belize will have to hurry. Subscription forms, an offering memorandum, and a B.T.L. prospectus became available today at the Central Bank. But according to a release from the Ministry of Budget Management, the offering ends on October twenty-eighth… giving any potential buyer […]
Belizean negotiators continue to lobby for a better deal for the nation’s banana growers. The European Union has submitted a new proposal to the World Trade Organization which calls for a reduced tariff for non-A.C.P. producers of one hundred and eighty-seven Euros per ton and an annual A.C.P. quota of seven hundred and seventy-five thousand […]
It’s official: the government–and presumably the people of Belize–are once again owners of the country’s sole supplier of water. In a ceremony today at the Central Bank in Belize City, Prime Minister Said Musa and Stephane Richer, C.E.O. of CASCAL, signed an agreement for the re-nationalization of the company. The old Water and Sewerage Authority […]
