Belize's new leader to avoid bond issues
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| Published on Monday, February 11, 2008 |
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By Catherine Bremer
BELMOPAN, Belize (Reuters): Belize's new prime minister, Dean Barrow, said on Friday he will avoid the bond markets and only borrow from international lenders as the debt-laden nation aims to boost growth and meet interest payments.
In an interview with Reuters after being sworn in as the Central American nation's first black leader, Barrow said Belize's $1.2 billion public debt, restructured in late 2006 to ward off a default, was tricky but manageable.
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| Dean Barrow. AFP PHOTO |
"It's no bed of roses. It's going to be tough going," said Barrow, who swapped his campaign trail baseball cap and sunglasses for a starched blue tropical Guayabera shirt with gold cufflinks.
"There's no way we can operate without contracting more debt but (it) would have to be multilateral debt, concessionary loans from the World Bank, IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), international organizations like that. We're certainly not interested in going to the commercial markets the way the outgoing government did."
Former prime minister Said Musa's heavy borrowing, along with alleged financial scandals and tax increases, cost him Thursday's general election, ending a decade in office.
"The economy is growing so we do feel we'll be able to service the current debt and still take on the additional borrowing on concessionary terms," Barrow, 56, a former attorney and foreign minister said in the capital Belmopan.
A centrist who ran on an anti-graft campaign, Barrow said his plans for new legislation to make it easier to clamp down on embezzlement were aimed at attracting local and foreign investment in areas like oil drilling and ecotourism.
Barrow will also study the idea of creating a capital market in Belize to lure equity capital, he said.
"We're going to operate on a straight basis with investors. We believe the private sector is what ought to drive the economy and we are going to do all we can to create the sort of enabling environment in which this can take place," he said.
He said while his aim was to develop small-scale ecotourism around Belize's lush jungles, he will also expand regular tourism with a cruise ship terminal being built on the edge of Belize City and possibly with charter flights from Europe.
For now, cruise ships anchoring off Belize have to put passengers in small boats to reach shore. Overseas tourists have to fly in via the United States or Central America.
Barrow said he would continue warm relations with Taiwan and Venezuela, which send financial support, but not to the point of irking Washington which Belize sees as an ally in fighting drug traffickers which race up its Caribbean coast in speedboats and are breeding street gang violence. |
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