On Thursday, August 19th. 2021, the Government Of Belize (John Briceno Administration) launched a new effort to increase the investment inflows into Belize and improve various sectors of the country’s export capacity.
In the harsh investment climate of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Belize’s new government, (Elected in November 2020) is pushing a hopeful and ambitious ‘Invest-In-Belize Agenda’, under the theme ‘ Belize Investment Summit 2021’ a conference and invest-in-Belize gathering that will culminate at ‘Grand Caribe‘ in San Pedro on November 3rd. – 4th.
And so after all the meetings and presentations of this plan is done, the question becomes, What is the primary strategy of the Investment Summit, and
1.) How or What will define success’. which in short terms would probably be –
2.) A comparison with current and future statistics of 2021/2022/2023 –
and
3.) Which competitive market will Belize make in-roads into and or how much will the country improve current export capacity of goods and services.
Minister of State, Ministry of Finance: (click on image above to go to video presentation )
Economic Development
CEO in the Office of the Prime Minister
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Like every other nation, Belize is in the competitive arena for selling its agricultural products and tourism destination services.
So the ambitious effort is just the only thing to do, because as the old adage goes, ‘when the going gets tough – the tough gets going’.
The Tourism Industry
The most affected business of the Pandemic is on life-support but those stakeholders are beginning to realize that its everybody’s problem and we better learn to live with COVID-19 for a little longer while we still try to mitigate the infection rate by getting innovative.
WHAT DOES BELIZE SELL TO CARICOM & ELSEWHERE
The CARICOM (CSME) Single Market & Economy is a huge opportunity for Belize.
The CARICOM Block of nations population exceeds 18-million people that will always need food products.
The primary exported agricultural product of Belize to CARICOM member states is ‘sugar’ and of recent chicken.
Those products alone are consumed in CARICOM member states to the tune of over $170-million US$. per year ( about 1/3 of a Billion $bz)
Just Jamaica, with 3-million people imported $25-million US$ worth of the birds in 2019/2020
Belize also produces Cattle, Seafood, Banana, Cocoa, Rice, Beans and fruits for export.
THE BIG TIME MARKET OF HIGH-END-PRODUCTS
One of the strategies of low volume producers of many products is to target the High-end-Market; and Belize is a low volume producer of many products, even sugar !.
Would You Buy A 250ml. bottle of Orange Juice For $7bz. Of course not! – But that is the price paid for this top-shelf Orange Juice in the UK.
The main commonality of ‘High-End-Producers’ is that they make a ‘Value added finished product’; meaning: in the case of the sugar industry, you would probably make a high-end-product wherein one of the main ingredients is sugar.
In just those few examples of vast opportunity ‘right here in the Caribbean’, Belize may just buck-the-trend of this slow-growth pandemic economy and improve its export capacity by developing and financing well planned local business ventures, and attracting investments from abroad that realize the huge market potential; apply the focused end-product strategy to many of Belize’s products and services and offer finished end-products to buyers worldwide.
A question posed by ‘News reporter Marion Ali’ of channel 5 reminded many Belizeans of past efforts to attract investors: wherein Belize attracted criminal elements, and some who were good investors and others that simply exploited the nation of Belize. The question was a reminder to us all that there must be subtle safeguard to mitigate corruption and criminal elements.
The world has become an increasingly competitive playing field of market economics, and small nations must play friendly, smart and agile to win in these challenging times.
On Tuesday August 17th. 2021 the Government of Belize earmarked $15-million for expanding and revitalizing the Citrus Industry in the Pomona Valley.
Written & Compiled by: channel1Belize.com / digitalBelize,LIVE Staff writer – Thursday, August 19th. 2021 – digitalbelize@gmail.com