6 days ago
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High-level officials from Belize and the Mexican state of Quintana Roo met this morning in the Corozal Free Zone for roundtable talks on strengthening trade ties, expanding access to regional markets, and improving transportation connectivity between the two neighbors. The meeting, held at the Pegasus Conference Room in the Princess Vegas facility, brought together representatives from the Office of the Prime Minister of Belize and senior officials from Quintana Roo for what was described as the fifth high-level engagement between the two sides. Among the key issues discussed was Mexico’s interest in utilizing Belize as a gateway to the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, thereby providing Mexican goods with greater access to markets across the region. Another major area of discussion centered on transportation connectivity, including the potential linkage between Mexico’s flagship Tren Maya project and the Port of Belize to facilitate cargo shipments and improve regional logistics. Presentations highlighted the possibility of integrating maritime and railway networks to create more efficient trade corridors connecting southern Mexico, Belize and the wider Caribbean. Director of Investment and Trade, Lincoln Blake, says today’s discussions mark the fifth meeting with Quintana Roo officials as both sides continue to explore ways to strengthen commercial ties and position Belize as Mexico’s access point to CARICOM.
Lincoln Blake, Director of Policy and Compliance Unit OPM: “It’s an engagement with the office of the Gobernadora from the Estado de Quintana Roo. She had first engaged us during the last Belize Investment Summit. She sent a delegation in which we established a table with several points that we wanted to ensure that we start developing. One of them was to access, they wanted to access Belize, want to access CARICOM through Belize using the status of CARICOM of Belize to enter, to access Mexican goods duty free into the CARICOM market. There is also there are several other initiative that they wanted to develop jointly one was the Tren Maya which they do know already that we are developing and enhancing our port facilities in Belize City and a lot of investors from especially the southern Mexican state of Quintana Roo they have said that they would be able to save at least 20% of cost in importing goods through the Belize port. So that has definitely incentivised them to engage us. Also to see how cargo could flow through Belize to the southern part of Mexico. There’s also a lot of interest to continue developing cultural initiatives between both Belize and Mexico. We have something that we’re developing what they call Belize Mexico Friendship Week that will be done on an annual basis. There’s something very interesting that we’re trying to enhance in the area too and we have several other initiatives that we’re also working on where there are some ecological type of initiatives and also we have educational and we also have some industrial type of export promotion type of actives we ant to develop in tandem with them.There’s a concept that we want to develop that is called synchronized factories, what they call Planta Hemelas. It has been working at the northern part of the country where Maquilas have been established in both sides of the border, the American and the Mexican. They want to do the same in the southern part of Mexico, where factories will establish on the Chetumal side and the Belize side, and where we will exchange goods so as to access the CARICOM market from their end and we could access the Mexican market.”
Director Blake went further to explain the genesis of this coming together of Belize and Quintana Roo indicating that the collaboration came as an idea from the InterAmerican Development Bank.
Lincoln Blake, Director of Policy and Compliance Unit OPM: “In 2019 the IDB assisted us in developing a master plan for the development and enhancement of the economic development of the Corozal District because it was too centered in two economic sectors. One is the free zone and the sugar industry. So there was need for diversification. So the IDB assisted us in developing a master plan, an economic master plan, which identified several key areas and one of the recommendations from the experts that came from London because the IDB identified an expert from London to come in and help us, they said that you need to have a closer relationship with the state of Quintana Roo. You have similar interests, you’re not competitors, you have similar interests and you should be cooperating so that you could access easily the Mexican market and they could access easily the CARICOM market and that’s how we started engaging and they have found a lot of interest in Belize because of that, and especially that they are trying to develop their polo de desarrollo, especially in the Chetumal area where they’re developing their industrial parks, et cetera. So they all started out from that.”
Reporter: How does the private sector then contribute towards these objectives?
Lincoln Blake, Director of Policy and Compliance Unit OPM: “Well, the private sector is a key part of these objectives because, especially when it comes to the enhancement of trade, the private, Our objective is to attract these private investments into the region, both Chetumal and Belize so as to produce these products not only for the Mexican market, but also for the CARICOM market. So, private sector investment is key.”
Blake says the private sector will also play a key role moving forward.
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