The Belize Trade and Investment Development Service, BELTRAIDE, today unveiled its new look. Complete with logos and slogans, the new image is designed to highlight all the positive reasons why investing in Belize is a win-win situation for any serious-minded investor. It’s a promotional strategy that officials at BELTRAIDE hope will build on the achievements […]
And while he was unable to attend the BELTRAIDE launch this morning because of a special Cabinet meeting in Belmopan, Home Affairs Minister Ralph Fonseca still had a lot to say about the investment climate in Belize. In his address, which was read by BELTRAIDE’s Administrative Chairman, Kay Menzies, Fonseca said that the slogan “Making […]
It began as a tactic to support efforts by the unions and political Opposition to force the resignation of the government and hold new elections. But the sabotage of the nation’s electrical system, hardly a brilliant idea in the first place, appears destined to backfire as an irate public is growing weary of the inconvenience […]
The destruction that occurred in downtown Belize City last Wednesday night was accomplished in a matter of minutes. The rebuilding, however, has taken longer. This morning I visited Albert Street where the sound of commerce had replaced that of breaking glass. Leopoldo Silva, Owner, Venus Photos and Records ?I?m very optimistic that we will get […]
If viewers are sometimes confused over exactly what the current national crisis is all about, don’t feel bad; we’re not always sure either. While the main thrust of protesters now appears to be the unconditional resignation of the government and the holding of new elections, there are other intermediate issues. The most prominent is a […]
While all eyes were focussed on the nation’s teachers, the controversy–or controversies?involving Belize’s telecommunications system continued on a tortuous path toward possible resolution. On the technical front, most B.T.L. services have been restored to near normal with the exception of some fibre optic links–unfortunately including those that carry this station’s television signals around the country. […]
In another facet of the B.T.L. controversy, a release from the Ministry of Finance has explained the disposition of funds from G.O.B.’s sale of fifteen percent ownership in the company to Michael Ashcroft. According to the release, Ashcroft’s Ecom Limited paid the full fourteen point five million U.S. dollars for the shares on March twenty-second, […]
“It’s been a cat and mouse game; we just have to try and get out there as quickly as we can to repair the damage.” That’s how Belize Electricity Limited chief executive officer, Lynn Young, describes the acts of sabotage affecting his company and the public’s supply of power. The latest acts of vandalism, a […]
When the sun rose on an exhausted and anxious Belize City, it became clear the downtown area was not the only part of town hit by vandals. News Five’s Patrick Jones made the rounds this morning as business owners began the sad and sober task of cleaning up their property and assessing the damage. Patrick […]
While the politicians plotted strategy the people at the centre of the immediate crisis–the workers at B.T.L.–continued to play haul and pull with the authorities. News’s Patrick Jones reports. Patrick Jones, Reporting For the third straight day, workers of Belize Telecommunications Limited were in uniform but remained off the job as the telecom crisis dragged […]
After three days without telephone, email, and internet services, a limited number of land lines were restored over the course of today by Belize Telecommunications Limited. Those repairs, presumably made by management personnel, came in the wake of what is widely believed to be sabotage by members of the Belize Communication Worker’s Union. That labour […]
It was a frustrating day for anyone trying to use land lines, cellular phones, faxes, or internet because of a protest by some B.T.L. employees who effectively shutdown the entire system from early this morning. They are protesting the return of either Jeffrey Prosser’s Belize Telecom personnel or any belonging to Sir Michael Ashcroft’s E-COM […]
Belize and Guatemala this week moved one step closer to a partial scope trade agreement. The process started last November and the two sides are hoping that by mid-2005 mechanisms will be in place. These measures should make it easier for certain goods and services to move freely between the two countries, promote a level […]
During this week’s Cabinet meeting, that executive body has finalized financial plans to fill a multi-million dollar gap created as a result of negotiations with Belize’s labour movement in February of this year. On Wednesday, officials told the media that the salary increases, a roll back in the environmental tax, and more money for the […]
As one of the fastest growing economic sectors in Belize with more than a million visitors passing through the country in 2004, tourism is big business. This morning the movers and shakers of the industry met in the old capital for a status report. Janelle Chanona, Reporting Hoteliers, restaurateurs, and other investors in Belize?s tourism […]
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services today announced that is has lowered Belize’s long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating to “CCC” from a “B-“. While the sovereign ratings on the short-term foreign and local currency remained at “C”, S&P also downgraded the country’s long-term local rating to “CCC+”, a drop from “B”. And according to a […]
Coincidence? Or competition? Whatever the case, Belize Telecommunications Limited, today announced new telephone rates for their DigiCell customers. No, you won’t have to pay more. In fact, Senior Marketing Representative Lisa Stanford says that beginning on Friday, thousands of B.T.L.’s DigiCell customers will be able to talk more and without feeling any bad rhythms in […]
Around two weeks ago we reported the “soft” opening of Speednet’s new telecommunications service. And while since then a lot of news has been generated by recent battles over ownership of BTL, the folks at Speednet kept plugging away. Last night they held their formal opening, and while Minister of Communications Vildo Marin could not […]
The dispute over who owns and controls Belize’s major telecommunications provider keeps getting nastier. At times the level of detail has become dizzying but we’ll do our best to put the situation in as simplified a version as possible. Basically, Jeffrey Prosser’s ICC, relying on a U.S. district court order issued Friday, claims to hold […]
We thought the story couldn’t get any more complicated but the plot surrounding control of Belize Telecommunications Limited is as thick as a three day old pot of split pea soup. If you watched the last seven minutes of video you now know that the Prime Minister has confirmed what we reported on yesterday’s newscast: […]
With Mr. Ashcroft back where he was a decade or so ago with regard to BTL ownership, there are still a few more loose ends to tie up. The first is the BTL employee group, led by Sunrise Ltd, who want to buy government’s remaining thirty-seven percent of the BTL shares plus Prosser’s thirty percent. […]
If it was a pilot script for a television soap opera the story would likely be rejected for having too many plot twists. But the saga of BTL, with millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs at stake, is no novella…and today it grew even stranger. Word out of the Jeffrey Prosser camp in Florida […]
The commission of Inquiry appointed to investigate the operations of the Development Finance Corporation has held its first meeting. The Monday meeting, which was not open to the public, reviewed its terms of reference, drafted a tentative schedule of public and private hearings and compiled an initial list of documents and records that have been […]
With the media focussing on the courtroom and boardroom battles for B.T.L., we neglected to report that Speednet, the upstart newcomer to the telecom scene, last week published its rates. And while those charges fall somewhat short of provoking the U.S. style price war that consumers were hoping for, they do represent some savings, particularly […]
It could be described as a “wake up call” to the Prime Minister, Jeffrey Prosser and Michael Ashcroft…except this morning there weren’t any wake up calls–or calls of any type, as one or more B.T.L. employees sabotaged the network of land lines, cellular service and internet for around four hours this morning. The technical action […]
