Home » December, 2022
You are currently browsing entries posted in: December, 2022
The Briceño administration has signed into law an increase in the hourly minimum wage which will come into force on New Year’s Day. On January first, 2023, the lowest legal rate of pay will be adjusted to five dollars per hour. While the business community does not object to the long overdue adjustment, its representative […]
Written on December 29, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on B.C.C.I. Resolute in Its Position on Minimum Wage Adjustment
Is the timing of the minimum wage adjustment strategic, in order for the Briceño administration to gain points with the electorate? That’s what we asked the president of the chamber earlier today. Here’s how he responded. Marcello Blake, President, B.C.C.I. “It’s political capital. Yes, being at this point in the five-year term, I think […]
Written on December 29, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Is Minimum Wage Adjustment Timed for Political Mileage?
The Internet – it’s a medium that we take for granted to stay in contact with one another from across the oceans or just across the street at the convenience of having a cell phone or an I-pad. But that same medium can be used to tarnish one’s reputation. So, in tandem with Cyber Security […]
Written on December 29, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Ministries of E-Governance and Home Affairs Team Up to Promote Cyber Crime Security among Children
While the Ministry of E-Governance used a student competition to help spread the pros and cons of the Internet, digitalization is a necessary tool that the various government ministries and departments all need in this era to conduct business at the speed of the rest of the world. Leading the charge in that task is […]
Written on December 29, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Minister Chebat: Many Government Ministries and Departments Have Been Digitalized
Minister Chebat holds the portfolio for the Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy, Logistics and E-Governance. Those ministerial responsibilities include oversight of the Belize Port Authority, which is a statutory body charged with determining where a port facility should be to effect port security regulations and compliance. And today a question was posed to him on […]
Written on December 29, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Cruise Stakeholder Take a Look at Draft Port Policy
Last month, Prime Minister John Briceño indicated how urgently the Belize Port Authority facility is in need of an upgraded cargo terminal. The PM said that the operations of the day cannot continue as they have been at the port and that an investment has to be made, whether by the receivership which manages its […]
Written on December 29, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Minister Chebat Agrees that P.B.L. Needs Upgraded Cargo Terminal
As it relates to the country’s main electricity provider, the Belize Electricity Limited and Minister Chebat’s Ministry of Energy, he said that contrary to some reports, or beliefs, the relationship between the ministry and the company is good. Michel Chebat, Minister of Public Utilities, Energy, Logistics and E-Governance “I think we have an excellent […]
Written on December 29, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on B.E.L and Ministry of Energy Have Good Working Relationship, Says Minister
The past twelve months saw the number of tourist arrivals significantly increase, much to the pleasure of people in the tourism industry. That was the sector that was impacted first when COVID swept across the world. But with renewed strengths and efforts doubled, coupled with strategic marketing outputs, the tourism industry is almost back to […]
Written on December 29, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on B.T.B Official: 2022 Was a Good Year for Tourism
Tonight, a family is distraught after a lone gunman opened fire on a pair of elderly men, killing a well-known tour guide. The incident happened on Racecourse Street just before ten o’clock, while Emert Flowers and Dusseldore Waight were socializing at his residence. It is believed that the deadly attack was a message being sent […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Crime,
Economy,
Featured,
People & Places |
Comments Off on 2 Elderly Men are Gunned Down Overnight; A Son is missing
Another Belize City man is missing and hasn’t been heard from since Christmas Day when he left for a house party in the Jane Usher Boulevard area. It is unlike twenty-seven-year-old Akeem Augustine to leave home and not get in touch with his family. Tonight, his loved ones fear the worst. It has been a […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Crime,
Economy,
Featured,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Akeem Augustine is Missing Since Christmas Day
An operation carried out by elements of the Special Patrol Unit has led to the recovery of a pair of firearms, matching ammunition and a quantity of retail cannabis. S.P.U. personnel descended on a property on Hondo Street, in the Backatown area of Belize City where they conducted a search of the residence. That operation […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Crime,
Economy,
Featured,
People & Places |
Comments Off on S.P.U. Recover Guns During Backatown Raid
Earlier today, thirty-year-old Perry Stratford, a British national who was arraigned on Tuesday for alleged kidnapping, theft, harm and damage to property against his fiancée, was granted bail at the Supreme Court. The emergency bail application before Justice Ricardo O’Neil Sandcroft commenced at 10:30, following a delay in transporting Stratford, a British army soldier, from […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Crime,
Featured,
People & Places,
Trials |
Comments Off on British Soldier Perry Stratford is Offered Bail After Domestic Spat
The tourism industry lost two tour guides in less than a week in separate and very different circumstances. On Christmas Eve, an unexpected flash flood in western Belize claimed the life of thirty-nine-year-old Julio Escobar, as he and fellow tour guides were taking in tourists who had gone on an expedition for that day. And […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Tourism Industry Loses Two Guides in Less Than A Week
The family of tour guide, thirty-nine-year-old Julio Escobar will miss him most around this time of the year, simply because it was on Christmas Eve that he drowned in flash floods that came downriver from the Maya Mountains. Caves Branch has been known over the last three decades as one of the tour destinations that […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Investigation Begins Into Circumstances Leading to Drowning of Tour Guide
While tour operators and their guides have their own individual safety protocols in place, how does the Belize Tourism Board ensure that they follow these protocols to the nearest letter? It’s a difficult task, Castaneda says, but they try to hold these tour companies to what they said they’d do. Currently under investigation, as well, […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on B.T.B.’s Enforcement Desk Does Countrywide Checks to Ensure Safety
Last night, we told you that the 2022/2023 sugar crop finally got underway, after the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association and A.S.R./B.S.I. signed a one-year interim agreement. Farmers are now tasked with ensuring that they deliver their sugarcane to the mill before the start of the rainy season. The Sugar Cane Production Committee has estimated […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Agriculture,
Economy,
Environment |
Comments Off on Over One Million Tons of Sugar Cane to be Milled in 2022/2023 Crop Season
And, while the 2022/2023 crop progresses, over next twelve months the millers and the farmers must once again engage in discussions towards a long-term commercial agreement. Shawn Chavarria, the Director of Finance at A.S.R./B.S.I. is hopeful that achieving a mutually beneficial long-term agreement within the next year is possible. Shawn Chavarria, Director of Finance, […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Agriculture,
Economy,
Environment |
Comments Off on Will the Next 12 Months Yield a Long-Term Agreement between B.S.C.F.A. and A.S.R./B.S.I.?
The Prime Minister’s New Year’s message was issued today. In his nine-minute-long address, Prime Minister John Briceño spoke about his administration’s success in several sectors, with a particular focus on the agriculture sector at the beginning of his speech. P.M. Briceño also paid a great deal of attention to the recent signing of the interim […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Prime Minister Briceño: “New National Pride Enlivens Homes, Workplaces and Public Squares”
In his New Year’s address, P.M. Briceño also announced a four million dollar investment in the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital to enhance its services. He also made mention of an expansion to the National Health Insurance Program in 2023, as well as an expansion of his administration’s free high school program. Prime Minister John […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Briceño Administration Intent on Scaling Up “Social Justice Priorities” in 2023
Turning back to tourism… When Belize’s tourism industry began to recover from the shutdown, we placed great emphasis on marketing to our number one customer, the United States, and then we looked closer to home. Those efforts have paid off, as B.T.B’s Director of Quality Management Abil Castaneda told us. He says there are four […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Belize Pushes Tourism in U.S., Mexico, Europe, and now South America
And while 2023 looks positive for our tourism product, a lot of the behind-the-scenes effort to keep the high standards that tourists are accustomed to has to do with training. It is a necessary undertaking that the Belize Tourism Board saw so important that it invested almost a million dollars over the past year. Castaneda […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Investing in The Key Areas That Boost Belize’s Tourism
The Belize Tourism Board’s fuel subsidy program that created an ease for tour operators during the roughest months of the global fuel price hike has expired. The program, introduced in September, assisted more than a hundred and eighty tour operators across the country for four months. And just as the program came to an end, […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment |
Comments Off on Over 180 Tour Operators Benefited from B.T.B.’s Fuel Subsidy Program
There is an increase of COVID cases following the Christmas holidays, but the closure of schools at this time has helped to keep those numbers from ballooning into an uncontrollable number of new infections. With a spike in COVID numbers, there’s always the concern of how it would affect travel, but at least for now, […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on COVID Spike Not Expected to Impact Tourism
Daniel “Lova Boy” Cacho recently partnered with the Jude Belize Foundation and the Herceline Torres Helping Hand Foundation to bring some much needed Christmas cheer to some students of Stella Maris Belize. The “Dash Out” singer was recently in Belize to headline the 2022 Youth Fest and the Boularuga Punta Rock Festival. During his stay, […]
Written on December 28, 2022 | Posted in
Economy,
Environment,
People & Places |
Comments Off on Lova Boy and Partners Gives Back to Stella Maris Students
The 2022/2023 sugar crop officially began this morning, following long-drawn-out negotiations between the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association and B.S.I. As we reported on Friday, the B.S.C.F.A. and the miller signed a one-year interim agreement under the same conditions as last year’s crop. This was a watershed for the entire industry, as the Sugar Industry […]
Written on December 27, 2022 | Posted in
Agriculture,
Economy,
Featured,
People & Places |
Comments Off on B.S.I. Is “Content and Happy” at the Start of the 2022/2023 Crop Season
