Belize and Quintana Roo Form Business Alliance

Mexico has a population of just over one hundred and twenty-five million residents. It is viewed as a green pasture for Belize’s tourism industry. That is why a delegation of government officials and private sector representatives traveled to Chetumal today to promote the upcoming coconut and corn festival. But the visit turned out to be more than just a promotional tour. Like-minded government and private sector representatives from both countries sat down to discuss the formation of an alliance to enhance cross border trade. News Five’s Paul Lopez traveled north today. He filed the following report.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

The Chetumal Chamber of Commerce hosted a delegation of government officials and business representatives from Belize at its headquarters in Mexico today. Rigo Vellos, the Mayor of Corozal Town, provided some insight into the purpose of their visit.

Rigo Vellos, Mayor, Corozal Town
“It is something where the BTIA Corozal Branch decided to come up with the idea where we do an event on behalf of the famous coconut and corn festival. We are trying to see how we can mobilize tourism through this event by inviting the Mexicans, specifically Chetumal and trying to see how we can get them across for this weekend and eventually on a bigger scale, every weekend if possible or every day.”

 

 

The second annual Coconut Fest is scheduled for August third in Corozal Town. The event is organized by the Belize Tourism Industry Association’s Corozal Chapter.

 

Efren Perez, President, BTIA, Corozal Chapter
“We have entertainment lined up the entire day, we start off at nine a.m. We start off with a parade with the local marching bands in Corozal, heading over to the Chactemal Plaza and it is a family fun day, we have activities, coconut competition we will be doing and a wide range of food, food specifically within the coconut and corn and that gives us an opportunity to focus on the culinary aspects of Corozal.”

 

 

But the discussions held today went beyond the tourism sector. There were talks of a partnership being formed to promote and enhance cross border trade.  Several Belizean businesses were present to introduce prospective consumers to their products, from transportation, to accommodation, communication and tours.

 

 

 

Shameka Pennill, Marketing Manager, San Pedro Belize Express
“We are basically here to showcase our service, specifically our Chetumal run that does the connection between Chetumal and Belize, specifically San Pedro and Caye Caulker.”

 

 

 

 

Jorge Murray, Sales Manager, SMART
“Today we are promoting our tourist sim cards. So, we offer two different packages for our travelers. We offer our day pass which includes unlimited data and eleven dollars’ worth of calling time and thirty-eight SMS.”

 

 

 

At today’s event, government officials and private sector representatives from both sides of the northern border sat at a head table explaining the importance of Belize and Chetumal forging strong alliances in mutually beneficial sectors. Prior to their public address, the head table met privately to discuss the best approaches to realize this vision. From that meeting it was decided that a working group would be established.

 

Efren Perez
“There were various issues that popped up. I think that when we look at cross borders, the issues with fees. Fortunately, I think the government has made advances in terms of doing that, with the introduction of Tren Maya and the Tulum International Airport, I think that gives us the tools necessary to start to work together as a region. What was discussed also is that we have common cultural bound in the area of Quinta Roo and I think we need to start to explore that.”

 

Notably, Mexican authorities cited several difficulties that residents face when traveling into Belize. Most of these challenges exist at the border crossing point. In response, the Government of Belize has removed travel duties for Mexicans coming into Belize. Also, a new statutory instrument affords Mexicans a seven day duty-free stay in Belize. The Regional Integration Unit within the Ministry of Tourism was recently established to address these types of issues.

 

 

 

Mike Hernandez, Regional Integration Officer, Regional Integration Unit
“Bearing in mind that currently residents from Chetumal are able to visit Belize and Othon Blanco are able to visit Belize and as long as Immigration allows them to stay to be able to enjoy Belize, allow the attractions in Belize without paying any taxes. One of the officials of CANACO that they find it difficult where in the immigration department you have persons that are rotated every six months. You have new people coming in and some of them are not familiar with the established protocols in place that are there to actually facilitate the movement of people.”

 

We also heard from Amir Espadas, the President of CANACO SERVYTUR, following today’s discussions. He noted that Belize has significant leverage in the region as a member of CARICOM.

 

Amir Espadas, President, CANACO SERVYTUR

“I think it is very important to make this alliance that allows us to form a working table where we are government and businessmen not only to solve immigration or border problems or not only to look for tourism solutions we want to look for solutions in trade, in export, in import in commercial tourism, in medical tourism, in education. We don’t want these to be just proposals that remain up in the air. We want them to be concrete proposals that materialize, as we are seeing today with this press conference, with the promotion of the Coconut Fair that will take place in Corozal, and with this exchange between hoteliers from Belize and Quintana Roo.”

 

Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.