Today, the Senate approved the two motions presented before it for US$215.6 million in foreign financing. The real problem, said Senator Hulse, is that we just don?t have the U.S. dollars we need to run the country.

?The U.S. [dollar] is not there so we have to borrow,? he said.

Belize imports much more that it exports and we purchase foreign goods largely in United States dollars.

While Belize has boasted phenomenal growth in the tourism industry over the last 6 years, there exists today a serious scarcity of United States dollars, even though that industry continues to be a leading U.S. dollar earner. Apart from the leakages in this sector, Senator Hulse also pointed to leakages of United States dollars due to free zones and casas de cambio, or foreign exchange houses.

?We have to have a plan to make something happen,? he stressed, adding that there has to be a serious effort to fix the existing problem.

He said that today?s Senate meeting was essentially called to approve the motions for the US$215.6 million in financing.

?The Senate is only a rubber stamp,? Senator Hulse said, arguing that the legislators of that section of the National Assembly had no power to stop the transactions, which, we note, represent 20% of the country?s current debt stock, now at about BZ$2 billion.

At the end of the day, the Senate approved the motions for the loans, with the 6 People?s United Party Senators voting for it and the 5 others present?Hulse, three Opposition Senators and Rene Gomez of the trade unions?voting against it. Senator Moises Chan was absent due to a personal emergency for which he had to leave the country, our newspaper was informed.

Gomez told Amandala that Opposition Senator Marcel Cardona called for a division at the time of voting for the two motions, because they wanted to have the vote of each Senator on record.

Since the Leader of Government Business in the Senate, Hon. Dickie Bradley, was late for today?s session, PUP Senator, Hon. Assad Shoman, Minister of National Development, read the motion for the US$78.9 million loan with the International Bank of Miami/Capital Markets Financial Services, while Bradley read the second motion for the US$136.6 million loan through Bear Stearns and Artemis Global Finance.

Two of the opposing Senators expressed concerns to us that the second loan carried with it unusually high costs for fees and insurance. The first motion essentially asked the Senators to approve what was really a done deal, since the disbursement for that loan was made in November, according to the motion papers presented to the Senators.

The meeting of the Senate started shortly after 10:00 a.m. and ended about 2:30 p.m. Both motions were approved, with 6 voting for and 5 against them.

About three weeks ago, when the Senate received the Prime Minister?s 2005/2006 budget and the new tax measures, the Senate vote was tied six-six, and the president of the Senate, Hon. Philip Zuniga, exercised his casting vote in favor of the budget and taxes. As with today?s motions, all PUP Senators supported the taxes and the budget.

When the House of Representatives met on Monday, February 21, 2005, all PUP members present voted for the $215.6 million in loans, while all the Opposition members voted against them. One member (PUP) was absent and so did not vote. The motions were carried in the House with 20 votes in their favor, 8 against.

Hon. Mark Espat and Hon. Cordel Hyde, two PUP area representatives, for Lake I and Albert, respectively, had voted against the budget in January; however, they voted in favor of the loans on Monday.

They told our newspaper that if the National Assembly did not approve the loans, GOB would default on its loans, as it just does not have the money to pay its loans. This, they said, would have dire repercussions for Belize.

Hon. Espat expressed concerns similar to Hulse?s when he spoke with our newspaper on Monday. He said, ?Those industries earning US dollars have to consider some arrangement with the Central Bank, such as the shrimp industry, which earns 80 million U.S. dollars [a year]. It could sell some of its dollars to the Central Bank,? he said.

He added that there needs to be an urgent program to bolster exports and thus the U.S. dollar earnings of the country.

Thirdly, he said that we need to minimize our demand for U.S. dollars, which has resulted in a trade imbalance?a situation that, he said, has to be addressed very urgently.

In conclusion, Espat told us that this would require nothing short of a national effort on the part of the Opposition, the private sector, government, and the unions.

It is noteworthy that in addition to the purchase of imports, debt servicing?both Government?s and that of the private sector?also places a serious strain on the availability of U.S. dollars. This is a problem, some of our sources say, because we just don?t earn enough U.S. dollars to buy goods and pay debt. So we end up borrowing them.

The only sector whose U.S. dollar earnings reach the official system is sugar, and we are informed that that amounts to a mere $50 million annually, while GOB?s debt servicing alone is projected to be nearly $150 million for the current financial year, ending March 31, 2005, and over $200 million in the coming year. A significant portion of the tourism receipts that do reach the national economy is believed to be traded at high rates on the black market, and not in the formal system.