It does not exactly come as a shock, since virtually every night on the U.S. news networks we watch as fuel prices climb at the pump. Tomorrow it will be our turn to moan as effective midnight tonight prices will rise by an average of around one percent, or seven cents per gallon. The new […]
Collective bargaining is an integral part of our economic system, and tonight that institution is being put to the test in one of the nation’s most important industries. For over three decades king cane has reigned at the top of Belize’s export hierarchy and while it has recently been overtaken by tourism and seafood production, […]
We hope that the B.T.B. continues to send press releases when the tourism picture becomes less rosy…but for now that concern is not a factor as for the last seventeen consecutive months, tourist arrivals have increased over the previous year, setting new records in sixteen of those months. According to the latest release, visitors arriving […]
This afternoon, Cabinet ministers, private sector organizations, citrus, sugar, and banana industry representatives, and financial services personnel joined members of the National Trade Union Congress and senior public officers at the Central Bank for the first meeting of the National Economic Council. The group will meet every quarter to discuss economic and social issues affecting […]
On Thursday, the Government of Belize signed an agreement with Carnival Cruise lines to begin construction of a fifty million dollar port in Belize City. It was signed although there is an existing agreement with Royal Caribbean, which owns the Fort Street Tourism Village. When News 5’s Janelle Chanona asked Prime Minister Said Musa if […]
The Assembly chambers in Belmopan were the scene of a pitched battle over bonds and the government’s latest attempt to raise money on the international market to restructure the nation’s debt. Patrick Jones reports from the nation’s capital. Ralph Fonseca, Minister of Finance “We have successfully gone to the international market with three bond issues. […]
If there were any doubts about Belize’s commitment to cruise tourism, they were dispelled today as the Government, Port, and Carnival Corporation inaugurated what may well rank as the largest single private development project in the nation’s history. And while it appears that certain legal impediments have not yet been removed from the scene, there […]
In news from Cabinet, that body has confirmed that government will introduce legislation in the House on Friday to facilitate a two hundred and twenty-five million U.S. dollar bond issue to be placed on the U.S. and European market. Proceeds from the fifteen year issue will be used to refinance portions of government’s short-term high-interest […]
He had originally said that no dividends would be paid out in the near future, but B.T.L.’s majority shareholder, Jeffrey Prosser, has apparently had a change of heart. A press release from Belize Telecommunications Limited issued late Friday evening announced that the company will pay dividends to all shareholders for the year ended March thirty-first, […]
It’s a subject that the average citizen may feel is beyond his or her comprehension, not to mention interest. But for a country like Belize, which lives or dies according to its commerce with the outside world, the subject of international trade is critical. Today I had the chance to speak to the men who […]
Belize Electricity Limited has reported a year of solid financial performance. At its annual general meeting, held Wednesday night, the company revealed that for the first time revenues from energy sales jumped the hundred million dollar mark. After tax profits also reached a record, rising eight percent to fourteen point one million dollars for the […]
The International Monetary Fund today released the public information notice, a bulletin that goes along with the report on the country’s Article Four consultation. While it wasn’t exactly a glowing assessment of the country’s fiscal health, the government?s spin-doctors and officials of the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank worked overtime this afternoon to gain […]
It has become a tradition under Minister of Tourism mark Espat… and you can’t really blame him. With the biggest business in the country going nowhere but up, today’s annual industry presentation was a chance for government to put out some good news that needed no spin to make it shine. Patrick Jones Reports. Patrick […]
A late release from the Government of Belize and Innovative Communication Corporation informs us that the sale of Belize Telecommunications Limited has officially been completed. I.C.C. paid eighty-nine million, seven hundred and twenty-nine thousand, eight hundred and thirty-eight U.S. dollars for the eighty-four percent of B.T.L. owned by Carlisle Holdings and the Belize Social Security […]
It will not be implemented until April 2005, but the decision has been made to raise the hotel tax from seven percent to nine percent. The move by the Belize Tourism Board was announced by the Belize Tourism Industry Association in its weekly bulletin. According to the B.T.I.A., the news came in the form of […]
To hear them tell it, it started simply enough. A conversation during a car ride in Mexico between one of Belize’s best friends, Sir Shridath Ramphal, and Prime Minister Said Musa. A single idea on the table: the Government of Belize’s desire to change the direction of a telecommunications scenario that just wasn’t going according […]
If you thought that last year’s fantastic figures for tourism were a fluke, a con, or the product of an overactive imagination you’d better look again. That’s right: the upward trend continues. According to statistics released today by the Belize Tourism Board, both overnight and cruise arrivals have increased dramatically during the first two months […]
The process no doubt was responsible for more than a few grey hairs on more than a few heads, but tonight the biggest business deal ever transacted in Belize has been completed. The agreement, signed today after months of negotiations and work on “due diligence”, calls for the government of Belize to sell the controlling […]
They are two issues providing a field day for the opposition: the stalled sale of B.T.L. to Innovative Communication and the bankruptcy of Novelo’s Bus Line. Today Minister of Finance Ralph Fonseca, a man intimately involved with both deals, weighed in for the government. In the case of B.T.L., he says a long and arduous […]
In the case of Novelo’s, according to Fonseca, no amount of government effort could save the company from its owners. Ralph Fonseca “The government’s position is that we had a very good business plan, we thought that was signed off on by some of the best in the world and the business plan was not […]
As everyone knows, Belize’s tourism industry is booming. But how that came to be is the result of a lot of hard work, some of which goes into trade shows like the one previewed by the media today. Patrick Jones reports. Patrick Jones, Reporting A full six months before the show, organisers of the Belize […]
Under the theme, “Making Business Happen”, this morning BELTRAIDE, Belize’s trade and investment development service, officially launched it’s action plan for 2004-2005. This year, focus will be on marketing programmes, national export strategies, and market access. According to Executive Chairman of BELTRAIDE, Lourdes Smith, the organisation and its services are at the disposal of local […]
One day when the full story is told it will be as juicy as any bestseller: a tale of greed, politics, mismanagement, and just plain bad luck. But those revelations will wait for another time. All we need to know now is that Novelo’s, the nation’s only nationwide bus line, has been placed in receivership […]
They say that what goes up must come down… and while the laws of gravity do not apply to fuel prices, consumers should be relieved to know that, for this week at least, a large tank of butane will cost five dollars less. A government release today announced that as of March fourth the price […]
The Belize Government today froze the bank accounts of an Internet gambling operation based at the Data Pro compound near the Burrell Boom cut-off. According to the head of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Keith Arnold, under the terms of a treaty between Belize and the United States of America, the U.S. Department of Justice asked […]
