_{Photo: Pier head at Port of Belize Ltd.}

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Aug. 1, 2024

In the second half of July, Prime Minister John Briceño participated in what he called “a very important meeting” in Belize City. It happened on the morning of the eve of the Wednesday, June 17, Toledo East by-election; and so PM Briceño, who had already gone down to Bella Vista for a pre-election rally on Monday evening, had to return to the old capital for that meeting on the morning of Tuesday, July 16, and then head back to the south that same afternoon to continue campaigning for their PUP candidate.

The meeting was about matters relating to the now state-owned Port of Belize Limited (PBL) and in particular, “the future of the Port of Belize.” We note that after the buyback of the port from the Ashcroft Alliance creditor companies, beyond urgent repairs, the Prime Minister had not ruled out the possibility of the Government itself pursuing an expansion of the port.

When we asked for more details of this discussion about the “future of the Port of Belize,” PM Briceño responded, “no, obviously not,” when we asked if the contemplation was a sale. He then explained, “Basically, what we’re doing, we have to look at what is it that’s going to happen at Port of Belize. We’re either going to do it just a container port or is it going to be a tourist [terminal] or a combination.” According to the Prime Minister, based on 1st studies they are seeing, “it seems that the best fit, like in many other ports, is that you have a combination of a container port along with a cruise port.” He emphasized, however, that they are merely at the initial stages of discussions, and that the plan was to present a Cabinet paper in a couple weeks for them to look at the options and decide which way they should go.

PM Briceño confirmed that in the meeting were representatives from a consultancy group out of Miami which he says “has extensive experience in doing consulting for cruise ports and container ports in the region – in the Caribbean, in the Americas and also in the United States.”

When we put to the PM that the environmental organizations will balk at a proposed cruise port addition, he said they “have a right to raise whatever concerns they have, and we need to respect that and to ensure that we can look as best as we possibly can in ensuring that we can protect the environment as best as we can.”

We have since confirmed that the Cabinet paper has not yet been presented and also, that the interim board of PBL was notified of the move to seek options suited to the future of the port.

The Government bought back the Port of Belize in December 2023 for a total of BZ$197.34 million. That included BZ$30.6 million for the resolution of two London Court of International Arbitration awards dating back to 2009.

The consultancy company is Piedroba Consulting, one of the entities that Waterloo had tapped to help with its environmental impact assessment applications for its own plans to develop PBL, which were ultimately shot down by the National Environmental Appraisal Committee.