He says he is not interested in returning to ownership of Belize Telecommunications Limited, but Michael Ashcroft remains a potent presence in the industry. This week?s Tuesday Amandala reported that the former B.T.L. chairman, through various companies under the Carlisle Holdings group, is now in control of a significant chunk of shares in the company. […]
It represents hundreds of Belizean businesses across the country and tonight the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, like the rest of us, is anxiously awaiting to hear details of the budget that will be presented in the House of Representatives on Friday. While there is little doubt that tax increases will be proposed, the […]
With the impending realization of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy Belizean producers now have to contend with the reality that what was a market of a couple hundred thousand will now expand to fourteen million. This arrangement may prompt either hope or fear but one thing is certain: it will not be business as […]
Several weeks ago we ran a story on the Corozal Free Zone which explained that, due to a number of factors, business was significantly down. This week the Ministry of Investment has announced the appointment of a special task force to find ways to reverse that decline. The six members: Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries […]
There was bad news for consumers today as the Public Utilities Commission reports that the folks at Belize Water Services are asking for yet another rate increase. The request, which seeks a seven percent price hike, effective April first, comes on top of the seventeen percent increase granted last year that the water company is […]
To supporters it’s a virtual gold mine, in which thousands of Belizeans find employment, hundreds of merchants reap riches and the Belize Government earns millions in tax revenues. For detractors it’s a haven for crooks, con artists and contrabandistas who deprive Belize’s treasury of tens of millions in customs duty. But for most Belizeans, the […]
Land: it’s a source of both great wealth and serious aggravation for many Belizeans. Today Cabinet took steps to deal with at least some of the problems surrounding land, namely taxes. In a press release that could only be described as cryptic, we are told that Cabinet considered proposals from the Ministry of Natural Resources […]
Over the last two decades virtually every major industry in the global economy has seen the number of competing players shrink though massive mergers and buyouts. Locally, however, with most businesses relatively small and family owned, it is rare to see two companies become one. That may be changing, however, at least in the insurance […]
The Christmas season is always one of paradoxes. Never do people cry louder about hard times, but at the same time spend obscene amounts of money. Well today the best adjective to describe the cash flowing at Benny’s was…splenditious. It was the culmination of the four month long Benny’s Home Centre cash giveaway promotion, with […]
On yesterday’s newscast we reported on the Supreme Court’s decision to grant leave for the judicial review of the Carnival Cruise Terminal contract as requested by the Belize Tourism Industry Association. Today Port of Belize Chief Luke Espat, Carnival’s local partner in the hundred million dollar project, told News 5 that while the starting date […]
If you work in Belize City and are watching the six thirty p.m. version of this newscast then I must offer congratulations. The way holiday traffic has been going, if you left at five, you’re lucky to be home. For drivers, the following scenes may be familiar. Janelle Chanona, Reporting Cars-a-honking, whistles a blowing, tis […]
Almost one year after it opened its doors in Belmopan, the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre has reached a major milestone towards sustainability. The Government of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last week pledged four hundred thousand U.S. dollars to cover the Centre’s operational budget for 2005/2006, with an option for extension to five years […]
One time is bad luck, twice a remarkable coincidence, but to have the ARCOS international fibre optic ring rupture three times in five weeks stretches our gullibility–not to mention our patience–well past the breaking point. That’s right, sometime this morning BTL’s international connections went dead. This time the undersea cable was cut somewhere between the […]
Earlier this month participants in Belize’s booming tourism industry gathered to honour their own in a gala night of awards. And even though 2004 is not yet over, we’d like to make an early nomination for the enterprise that will certainly get our vote for 2005’s hotel of the year. The name of the establishment […]
With the meaning of the word “mail” increasingly defined as that long list of unsolicited offers that find their way onto your computer, it seems that fewer and fewer Belizeans require the services of the post office. But as Patrick Jones discovered, the facts say otherwise…and until someone figures out how to send a black […]
The first hearing in the Senate Select Committee investigation of possible financial and procedural irregularities involving Social Security funds was held today at the National Assembly building in Belmopan. Chairing the meeting was Senator Godwin Hulse who was flanked by Senators Dickie Bradley, Moises Chan and Rene Gomez. In all, seven witnesses were sworn in […]
Next to take the hotseat was Governor of the Central Bank, Sydney Campbell, to walk the Senators through the securitization process as well as to explain the Bank’s role in handling monies and transfers between various institutions including the SSB and the Royal Merchant Bank of Trinidad and Tobago. Sydney Campbell, Governor, Central Bank “Through […]
Intimately involved in the securitization process with the Social Security Board was the Development Finance Corporation. Today, its Chief Executive Officer, Troy Gabb, appeared to answer questions from the panel about the loans that the institution had put forward to be bundled with various SSB loans for sale abroad. As was pointed out to him […]
But perhaps the most interesting fact disclosed by CEO Gabb was the revelation that during the securitisation process the mortgages were handled by a company registered in the Cayman Islands. Its owners? The same DFC directors, who Gabb named only after persistent prompting, being Glenn Godfrey, then Chairman of DFC, his deputy, David Courtenay and […]
It was to have been Innovative Communications CEO Jeffrey Prosser facing off with the Belizean press corpstoday, but this afternoon we were informed that “scheduling conflicts” would prevent the BTL boss from the sit down. In his place appeared the company’s Washington lawyer Lanny J. Davis. Davis’s claim to fame is a two-year stint with […]
Belize’s tourism industry has received an early Christmas present, just in time for the holiday rush. On Saturday, Delta Airlines made the first of what will hopefully be many scheduled arrivals at the Philip Goldson International Airport. Experiencing the traditional inaugural wetting from the Fire Service, the Boeing 737 brought close to a hundred passengers […]
Cabinet has also approved a proposal to seek funding to increase efficiency and productivity in the sugar industry. The ten million dollar project would establish a core-sampling unit, which would be paid for through deductions from cane payments by BSI to farmers. The goal of the project is to increase yields from seventeen to twenty-five […]
For his part BEL chief Lynn Young says that with oil prices heading in only one direction, the alternative energy can’t come soon enough. Lynn Young, President/CEO, BEL ?We are getting about fifty percent of our power from Mexico right now and we get about twenty/twenty-five percent from the Mollejon Plant, the rest comes from […]
While the energy sector is showing promise, developments in the retailing across the Atlantic are causing a few jitters here. Courts PLC, the parent company of Courts Belize Limited, has put itself into administration, a form of bankruptcy, saying basically that its bankers have pulled the plug on its eighty-nine stores in the United Kingdom […]
A delegation of business men and women from the Republic of China on Taiwan is on an official visit to the country, with an eye to explore areas of greater cooperation. Today, on the first full day of their visit, the group, led by Minister without Portfolio, Yi-fu Lin, paid a courtesy call on Prime […]
