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Ambassador rose from streets to diplomacy
Staff writer, with CNA
Working hard and being ready to seize opportunities transformed Belizean Ambassador to Taiwan Candice Pitts’ life, she said.
Growing up in the underdeveloped community of Port Loyola, Pitts helped her mother sell johnnycakes on the street and dreamed of becoming a lawyer, like many Belizeans do, but instead became an educator, a city councilor and a diplomat.
“Fortunately, I am one of those people who have been exposed to opportunities, and so I have been able to transcend the life [I had] in Port Loyola,” she said in an interview with the Central News Agency.
The Prime Minister of Belize is missing! That is the impression that the general public has after it was announced that he would be leaving the country on May 1. There was no telling where he was going, and what the purpose of his travel was. It has been a long held practice for the Belizean public to be told where our leader goes and for what purpose. That was not the case this weekend as Johnny Briceno simply left without saying for what and where he was going.
While it is not uncommon for leaders of countries to travel without saying where they go, for us in Belize it was strange as we have grown accustomed to knowing where our leader is. Now, that aside, the country finds itself in some major problems. The major unions in this country are on strike. The BNTU and the PSU are engaged in a strike and the leader is gone. There is no way that someone in a leadership position should be out of the country during this kind of situation.
The PUP administration presented its budget for the financial year 2021-2022 during a House Meeting on Friday April 9th. The budget presentation was largely unimpressive with observers stating that it was the most boring presentations ever. And while the reader, Prime Minister Johnny Briceno, could not inspire anyone by his monotonous reading, a portion of the reading did catch our attention. In his presentation he cited that 40% of Government’s indebtedness is as a result of the Superbond.
He broke down the numbers as follows:
“$872 million is owed to our bilateral lenders, 55 percent of which was borrowed under the Petro Caribe Program with Venezuela; while 34 percent of this amount is owed to the Republic of China on Taiwan and the small remainder to other friendly countries.
By Reuters Staff
2 Min Read
March 3 (Reuters) - Debt-strained Belize has not requested an International Monetary Fund bailout programme, the Fund’s top official in the country said.
Belize’s government and the IMF are currently holding online talks as part of what would normally be considered a regular review of the central American country by the fund.
The discussions have taken on greater significance however following recent rating agency warnings that the country, which has a debt-to-GDP ratio of more than 120% and already postponed some debt payments last year, is heading for default in May.
“The virtual mission is expected to conclude next week and we will communicate at the end of the discussions. The authorities of Belize have not requested an IMF programme,” said IMF Mission Chief for Belize Jaime Guajardo in an emailed statement.