Opening The Doors For Belizeans To Be Leaders In Science

Today, the National Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Committee held its first meeting to develop the National Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy. This inaugural session, the first of a series of consultations, represents a milestone for Belize. The primary focus of this meeting is to engage with key academic, private, public, and industry stakeholders towards the development of Belize’s first-ever Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy, aiming to guide the growth and development of Belize and its people over the next decade. Minister of State in the Ministry of Education, Doctor Louis Zabaneh, expanded on the significance of this endeavor.

 

Dr. Louis Zabaneh, Minister of State, MOECST
“So, fortunately we have already done a lot of work with respect to innovation.  We’ve gotten a lot of support from partners like IDB, UNDP in this regard. And so we’re not starting from scratch.  But what innovation is really is the application of Technology and science that has already been produced somewhere.  And putting it to work for us is going to be very important. And that’s what those initiatives have done.  So that’s a good start, but we are taking an audacious view of what we can do as a country. We believe that we can also contribute to the production of technology. To the production of science,  because we want to be in a position in the next ten, twenty, fifty years where we are active participants in the fourth industrial revolution and beyond that we are not just takers, but we’re also givers. And that means we have to have a plan that includes research and development, includes technology development, and goes upstream even farther into science, into contributing to science as well.”