India Wants Stronger Ties with Belize

India is on its way to becoming one of the world’s top economies. While the country, like every other, has issues with poverty and pollution, it has made significant strides over time to also reduce the prevalence of these problems. And now, India wants to strengthen its ties with countries on this side of the world. It is a wish that Belize’s Minister of Foreign Trade, Francis Fonseca, welcomes and says he looks forward to discussions with India in this regard because Belize could benefit significantly from it.

 

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Trade

“Both Belize and CARICOM are very excited about the fact that India is reaching out and engaging more Rigorously with the CARICOM region. India, of course, is one of the largest economies in the world. They are one of perhaps the fastest-growing countries in the world. They have obviously a population of, I think 1.4 billion people. So that provides so much opportunity and for countries in the Caribbean, for us in Belize, I think you know the priority areas are economic development, investment – how can we engage with investors from India with companies in India that may have an interest in investing in Belize in helping us to partner with us, to grow and develop the Belizean economy. So that’s the number one priority; number two of course, India is well-known for their technological advancement in terms of their science and technology. Indian engineers and computer experts are in demand all over the world. For example, if you go to Silicon Valley in the United States, most of the engineers, software developers are Indians. So there’s a lot that a small country like Belize can benefit from, in terms of their expertise in science and technology. And so we, certainly are looking forward to that. Another very meaningful area, we don’t think about this too often, but tourism. This is, as I said, a country of 1. 4 billion people. They have a huge middle class that’s growing and a lot of wealthy people, who want to travel, who want to travel beyond the United States, want to travel beyond Europe. Now they’re looking to new places and so a country like Belize, which has so much to offer in terms of tourism, we want to see how we can engage more meaningfully with India. Connectivity – we would love to have flights from India. We would love to see more tourists coming from India to Belize. Of course, as we have a vibrant Indian population here in Belize. So we want to encourage them to bring more of their friends and families to Belize so that they can enjoy the wonderful experience of Belize’s culture and our dynamic tourism product.”