Dr. Osmond Martinez Sworn in as Minister of State at Foreign Trade

We begin tonight’s newscast with news from Belmopan. Today, almost a month after he was elected in a by-election, Doctor Osmond Martinez was sworn in by the Governor-General at Belize House as a Minister of state in the Briceno administration. Martinez soundly defeated his political opponent Dennis Williams by more than two thousand votes at the polls on July seventeenth in the Toledo East constituency. Following his oath of office, Prime Minister John Briceño assigned Martinez as Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Trade. The former C.E.O. in the Ministry of Economic Development resigned from that post to run for the seat that was left vacant in April when his political boss, Minister of State for Economic Development and Area Representative for Toledo East, Mike Espat passed away. Today, the new Minister of State Martinez explained to reporters why he got that assignment.

 

Dr. Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Foreign Trade

“We had our meeting and on that meeting, it was shown that there is a lot of connectivity, you know, within the Ministry of Economic Development, and in order for us to accomplish the pending items on Plan Belize, there is a lot of things that need to be done from the Ministry of Foreign Trade.”

 

 

 

Marion Ali

“When you were CEO, you were able to tap into funds that Belize would have lost out on. Now that you’re a minister, was it your hope that you would have been sworn in as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance so that you could continue with those projects?”

 

Dr. Osmond Martinez

“Well, remember that once we are elected, we serve at the pleasure of the Prime Minister and he is the one who will decide where each individual is more fit to serve. And in this case, he believed that I am more fit to serve in the Ministry of Foreign Trade than I will do it. But based on your question, I think that the Ministry of Foreign Trade and the Ministry of Finance. They complement one another and the Ministry of Economic Development. It requires a lot of – when you look at the economic development, it’s not only about grants, you know, that is one of the things that we champion, but it’s also about planning. It’s about coordination. It’s about dictating the pace of economic growth and development. It’s about data analysis. In this case, now, we will be doing – maybe executing now what we were doing at all the planning and coordination that was being done at the Ministry of Economic Development and Finance. Now the Ministry of Foreign Trade will be able to implement it because there is a trade deficit, for example, that needs to be – a gap that needs to be closed. There are more opportunities in terms of negotiating with our countries. There is also the investments in terms of getting the Pacific Corridor and the Atlantic Corridor connected through Belize. Also, all these connections in terms of using Belize, or geographically, you know. Belize is well positioned to become a good trading partner for the southern part of Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. And so these are the things that we need to look at that now it’s about implementing what we have planned and coordinated at the Ministry of Economic Development and Finance.”