BELIZE CITY, Wed. July 10, 2019– The Statistical Institute of Belize celebrated a major accomplishment today, Wednesday, at the launch of the Belize National Statistic System (BNSS) Portal on their website. This project has been years in the making and is expected to increase the volume of information that will be readily available for public consumption.

The initiative was conducted in partnership with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and a live demonstration of portal navigation and the website’s features were presented at the Radisson Fort George Hotel by SIB staff.

Participants were comprised of representatives from the government and organizations that make up BNSS as well as members of the diplomatic community and international development partners. The new system is designed to be the official source of indicators and meta-data surrounding Belize’s Sustainable Development Goals, growth and sustainable development strategies, etc.

The general public will now have access to data which can be extrapolated and presented in tables, diagrams, charts etc. This will benefit the government, civil societies, academia, businesses and even international organizations in assessing Belize’s current strategies for development.

Partnership with the IDB was funded by a grant of US$190,000 to support effective evidence-based policy-making across the different sectors of Belize. The availability of this information is also