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Belize Tourism Industry Association
#10 North Park Street, P.O. Box 62
Belize City, Belize
Tel.: 227-1144, Fax: 227-8710, E-mail: admsec@btia.org
For Immediate Release
Keynote Address by Hon. Mark Espat at the BTIA's Bi-Annual Meeting
Theme: National Development, Governance and Reform
Members of the BTIA Board
Representatives from the various tourism sectors
BTB Officials
Invited Guests
It seems like many years have passed since my last opportunity to share some thoughts with you; when I look in the mirror, it certainly seems like more than a year and a half has passed by; that is how long it has been since we worked together for tourism.
When I was Minister of Tourism, you all did not allow me to display my repertoire of tourism jokes - but I have kept them handy. Today, let us opt for some memorable exchanges between tour guide and visitor:
Picture the first time visitor at the Jaguar Reserve:
"Look, guide, here are some Jaguar tracks."
The Guide: "Good. You see where they go and I'll find out where they came from and we meet back at the van."
Picture another visitor and the same guide at the Caves Branch Park:
"Are there any bats in this cave?"
The guide: "There were, but don't worry, the snakes ate all of them."
We have to nominate this guide for this year's Tourism Awards!
Congratulations are in order for BTIA and the various sub-sectors and to the BTB for the continued growth of the overnight industry. Arrival growth continued apace in 2005, airline connections continue to expand, occupancy and average rate figures improved and capacity expansion, especially in San Pedro and Placencia, continue. This is due to the commitment and competence of tourism's owners, managers, employees and the BTB.
As competition intensifies and tourism products are exposed to ever more demanding consumers, this is not an achievement that you should take for granted. You need to maintain your competitive edge. Two issues related to this competitive edge are important for me to address:
First: the matter of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). VOIP is not illegal in Belize and it should NOT be made illegal. 49 countries in fact, have legalized VOIP. What is illegal is BTL's blocking of VOIP.
VOIP has emerged because of the exorbitant cost of long distance calls. BTL, which itself employs VOIP technology should now offer this service to Belizeans at globally competitive prices.
BTL's ownership appears to be clinging to the past mainly to protect profits. The march of technology and the tide of personal freedom that brought us from morse code, to telex, to fax machines, to email cannot be halted. The PUC, if it is to remain relevant, must defend the interests of the consumers.
Second: the matter of the GST. While the industry's GST status may not be what you have requested, our Ministry of Investment, wishes to enhance our support for tourism. We will now place renewed emphasis on our incentive program, the regular development concession program and the SME framework, so as to make the tax playing field level. BELTRAIDE will streamline the process and fast-track bona fide tourism-related applications with the intention of supporting the industry's competitiveness.
In preparing to meet you today, there were so many things I wanted to share, so many thoughts and ideas because there is so much happening in our world, in our region and in our country. When I met two weeks ago, with the village council chairpersons and representatives in the village of Maya Center, in South Stann Creek, we talked for two hours about National Development from the rural development perspective.
Our discussion included a measure of the political winds blowing from the south, from South America, where political change is sweeping Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru and where a new social consciousness has swept Chile, Brazil and Argentina. Here in Belize, the winds of change blew forcefully on March 1.
In London this week, The Power Commission, an inquiry into the ailing health of Britain's democracy, will listen to the leaders of the Conservative and the Liberal Democratic Party during a special conference in Westminster under the theme "Power to the People." A press release yesterday stated that "members of the Commission will say that large scale reforms of party funding, the voting system, the House of Lords (their Senate) and the control of power by the Government are now urgent."
Populist politicians are emerging in Latin America for the very same reason that the architects of our political system in London are reviewing their democratic blueprints: the reason being the yawning gap between what the system of government has promised its people and what the system is delivering to them. The promise and the pudding are worlds apart.
The question that dominated that community meeting in Maya Center two weeks ago is at the heart of this matter of governance and reform: why is our country so rich but so many of our people so poor? Now, this question makes many people uncomfortable especially in Belize, where we call get along so well or so it appears. The discomfort of asking the question and addressing the attendant issues will pace in comparison to what will happen if it remains unspoken. Why is Belize so wealthy - the people, abundant land, the reserves, the reef, the rivers, the wildlife, now the oil - but so many people poor?
Before you hear and hopefully, listen to my thoughts on governance and reform, let me say just a few words on the matter of National Development. This year, we will commemorate 25 years of Independence. We must ask ourselves: how have we performed as a nation in those 25 years? Some things have gone well - we have absorbed immigrants from Central America peacefully, our districts are all connected by paved roads, our cities and towns have modern telecommunications, water and waste water and electricity services, quality health care is available commercially, there is the University of Belize, tourism and aquaculture have emerged as new industries, the quality of life has soared for a small segment of the population, mostly in our urban areas. George Price and his cadre of diplomats, including our PM, who internationalized our struggle and delivered political Independence deserve lasting glory. Yes, there is much to be satisfied about in the last 25 years.
Alas, in these 25 years, there is much to be dissatisfied about.
Belize has fallen to 91 of 175 countries on the UN's Human Development Index; 1 in 3 citizens are below the poverty line; 1400 hundred inmates occupy the National Prison; 24% of our people are functionally illiterate while an estimated 50% of our children do not complete primary school; our national debt stands at BZ$2 billion or $7000 for every child, woman and man; 80% of our agricultural land is owned by 3% of landholders;
2 year old Kimora Leslie died this week because of shunt and a lacking national health insurance; there is 2.4% prevalence rate for HIV/Aids. Our roads don't have a dividing line, our Met Service does not have a weather radar, our mentally ill patients do not have a proper hospital. The reasons for dissatisfaction could continue.
So what are we to do? How can we turn things around? After all, other countries have turned things around. In Asia, Singapore, the visionary leader Lee Kuan Yew took that island from Third World to First, in just 40 years. "From Third World to First", the title of Mr. Yew's chronicle of Singapore's rise, reveals that this tiny island, 242 square miles and 2 million at the time, had a per capita GDP of $400 in 1959 and by 1999, that figure was $22,000, 55 times the 1959 level.
In the Caribbean, Barbados, after 40 years of Independence, with almost the same population as Belize but with only 163 square miles of territory has an economy more than three times the size of ours and has become a model for economic and social order.
In Africa, Bostwana, after 40 years of Independence, with a population just 5 times ours, has an economy that is 10 times ours.
25 years ago, our GDP stood at $340 million and our exports totaled $149.5 million.
25 years later, our GDP stands at just $2 billion and our exports total $413 million.
After 25 years, our per capita GDP has barely tripled.
That's just not good enough. I am dissatisfied with this performance and you should be too. And before you hear that I am speaking against my party and against my government, I am not. I am speaking for Belize. We have got to break ourselves free of these red and blue chains that blur our eyes, muffle our lips and retard our development.
Belize cannot afford the cycle of three year and five year development plans. We need to think long-term, let us think about where we want to be 25 years from now, so that these next 25 years are more productive.
Our MND is advocating this Long Term Economic Strategy, crafted with the involvement and support of the private sector and of the Opposition, and bringing together all our strategic plans in areas such as education and health care, economic programs such as tourism and agriculture, our national export strategy, our plan to fight poverty and build infrastructure.
This Long Term Economic Strategy must set targets, it must be visionary and it must be managed. The 1996 National Tourism Strategy is an excellent model: it was the product of widespread stakeholder consultation, set targets, received cross-party political support, was backed up by professional management and achieved much of the growth it aimed for. Belize can achieve this type of planned development on a national level but the process has to start now if we will turn things around.
There must be a vision for Belize in 2030, one where our children are born into strong families, receive a quality education, enter a well paid workforce, produce competitive goods and services, save steadily are protected by a social safety net including social security and universal health care and retire with dignity.
In short, we must envision Belize making that leap from developing country status to developed country status and we must all be prepared to muster the national ethic, the national consciousness, the national collaboration to get us there. To get to this promise land of development, we must all be prepared to cross political lines, religious lines, racial lines, professional lines and gender lines, to break through these barriers that encumber our potential, as individuals and as a nation.
And this process of planning and management must be backed up by an empowered people and a more robust democracy. Planning and productivity cannot prosper where there is unstable and weak governance. This leads me to the heart of my discussion with you: how do we strengthen our democracy, to ensure higher standards in government?
There are ten key recommendations I wish to share with you today, not as final products but to fuel the debate and to encourage urgent discussion:
Ten Proposals for Change:
1. CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM: The House of Representatives should immediately consider and approve laws governing all donations to and financing for political parties, with a view to limiting the overall amount spent and the amount each individual or company can legally contribute. Violations should carry criminal penalties. Complete financial statements of parties should be made public. The need for this is so obvious: do you treat all your customers the same? No you don't especially if one customer buys 70% of your products. Parties will not treat voters and interests the same if one or two provide 70% of their funds, hence the term "special interests."
2. LIMITS TO BORROWING AND SPENDING: The Belize Constitution should be amended to include a Fiscal Responsibility Act that limit the annual deficit allowed for any government, to limit the public and publicly guaranteed debt of Belize as a percentage of GDP and to set a limit on the permissible annual repayment of debt as a percentage of government revenues. In other words, no government should be allowed to spend more than, say 20 cents of every dollar it earns on debt.
3. ELECTING A STRONGER SENATE: Starting with the 2008 election cycle, the Senate should be elected by popular vote, with an equal number of members elected for each district.
The responsibilities of the Senate should be expanded to include investigative powers, the current functions of House of Representatives Standing Committees including the Public Accounts Committee, veto powers over certain areas of the National Budget such as Capital Expenditure and general oversight responsibilities on the Executive.
4. SHARING THE BENEFITS FROM OIL: Government should ensure that a percentage of the shares in all oil companies extracting oil from Belize, starting with BNE, is offered to the Belizean public in small blocks, that GOB gets at least 70% of gross oil receipts from easily accessible wells and that a long-term fully transparent Petroleum Fund be established with a sizable portion earmarked annually for pro poor projects. Taxing oil should take a progressive approach - when prices rise, so should our share; this is a non renewable resource, the proceeds of which should benefit future generations of Belizeans. 50-50 sounds good but not good enough. Of 46 oil producing countries listed in a recent report prepared for the GOB, only 5 collect 50% or less, mainly because of the locations of the wells. This is the most important development since 1981 - imagine, if 3 wells have 18 million barrels, at US$70 a barrel that's BZ$2.4 Billion over 15 years. This is 10 times bigger than all privatizations combined. We must get it right.
5. STIFFER PENALTIES FOR THE FINANCE AND AUDIT ACT: Violation of the Finance and Audit Reform Act, which governs how we manage Belize monies and her assets should carry criminal penalties. Burdening the Belizean taxpayer with unauthorized debt or transferring public assets outside the law should attract the same punishment as the ordinary citizen who commits theft or burglary or mishandles company assets.
6. TERM LIMITS FOR REPRESENTATIVES: Representative should not be allowed to serve more than three consecutive terms in the House and two in the newly elected Senate. The Constitution should be amended to reduce the term of office for the Central Government to four years from its current duration of five years.
7. SECURING SOCIAL SECURITY: Our social security contributions are sacrosanct and thus require far better and more prudent management. Therefore, the SSB Act should be amended to stipulate, among other new provisions, that a major portion of SSB funds should be held in cash and cash equivalent instruments, that no more than 10% of annual collections should be spent on administration, that equal representation on the Board of Directors be offered to private sector and labor and that violations to this Act also carry criminal penalties. SSB funds should be outside the reach of any national government.
8. INCREASING MINIMUM WAGES: There should be an immediate increase to the minimum wage for all categories of workers and a requirement to adjust these wages on a periodic basis.
9. REFORMING THE TAX SYSTEM: There should be an immediate, comprehensive review of existing long- term tax concessions, including PIC and EPZ designations to reduce revenue loss to Government. Development concessions should be in the form of legal contracts binding investors and GOB to its commitments. Reducing the tax burden on the consumer and leveling the tax field for the private sector should underline the new tax framework. Make no mistake about it, experiences worldwide have shown that the most important attraction for FDI is NOT tax breaks but a stable investment climate. Tax breaks are a race to the bottom. We have all lived this in the cruise sector in the Caribbean.
Investors want to know that they can get their money out with the same ease that they put it in, no different from a bank. Many times, you decide upon which bank to deposit your money not by which one offers the highest deposit rates but by which bank you trust will keep your money safe.
10. MORE POWER TO THE PEOPLE: Granting greater autonomy to our Municipal Governments and Village Councils including more financial independence. Village Councils, for example, should be allowed to collect not just liquor license fees but also trade license fees and village land taxes and should have consequential involvement in such areas of village expansion and land utilization. 51% of our population lives in the 192 rural villages and settlements. These villages will be towns and these towns will be cities, IF we plan and manage effectively.
So, these are my thoughts today, on national development, reform and governance. Why are these issues important to you and to the process of nation building, you may ask: well, for tourism to truly develop and prosper, for the sustenance of this dynamic industries and by extension for you, your families, your investors and your employees, in the long term, it must have a stable and a progressive environment, one that places a premium on planning and management.
These issues should be important to you because governance is the heart and national planning the brain of this body called Belize. Tourism is but a hand feeding this body - you have a duty to ensure that the heart and mind are healthy and functioning.
We are a rich and a resourceful country; we cannot wait for a third 25 years to draw wisdom from hindsight. Our national standing is retrievable, if we ensure that a beggar's child is not condemned to be a beggar?the broader the horizon of that beggar's child, the broader our national horizon will be.
Thank you for listening and for inviting me here today.
- End - |
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