2024-04-09 - Channel 5 Belize

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.”

Minister of Education Says New System Has Corrected IT-VET Payment Issue

In January, instructors at the Belize City IT-VET complained that they were not receiving their salaries on time and that the faulty system that the Ministry of Education was using had the school meeting their salaries instead. One of the instructors told us that the ministry had not deposited their salaries for months. Soon after the complaint, the ministry blamed the system of payment that was being used. The Minister of Education, Francis Fonseca has assured that the problem has been fixed.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“The root of the problem has been the one-year contracts, so every year they have to go through a process of renewing these one-year contracts, and for many years that served the purposes of both sides because you were taking on professionals, if you like, who didn’t want long-term contracts. They wanted flexibility, but we recognized that has not been working. And so there’s been a deliberate effort on the part of the ministry to try to work with the I.T. VETs to put in place a more sustainable structure, longer-term contracts to make sure that we get them paid through the Smart Stream system. So my latest report is that yes, those issues have been resolved. But we’ll have to wait and see because every time we think that it has been resolved, some other issue arises. But I’m very hopeful that we’ve put in place the right measures and policies now that will make sure that problem doesn’t arise again.”

Fifty Heat Wave Days Forecasted Over Next Three Months

Belize has been experiencing some extremely hot days over the last few weeks. In fact, two all-time heat records were broken only last week. The National Meteorological Service of Belize warns that above seasonal temperatures are expected to continue across the county over the next few months, with as many as fifty heat wave days expected inland. Chief Meteorologist Ronald Gordon told us more.

Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist, National Meteorological Service

“As we reported last week we had two stations in this country that broke all time records on the second of, or it was the third, last week Wednesday. We had a record here at the airport which we never experienced before, which is a hundred degrees Fahrenheit and ninety-nine point nine to be exact. That is an all-time record for this station. We had another record in Melinda. I cannot recall the exact figure but that was also a record that was broken an all-time record on that same day. So it shows you that that day was extremely hot across the country and if that is any indication of what is going to happen in the peak of the dry season then we can expect it to be a record hot year for us this particular heat season. To put it precisely one of the things that is favoring that excessive heat is the very warm ocean temperatures. We know that the air is modified by the oceans. So, certainly given the fact that we have very warm ocean temperatures mean we are going to have very warm atmospheric temperatures near the surface.”

Belize Needs More Met Officers

The National Meteorological Service of Belize may soon be faced with a shortage of personnel. With senior employees retiring, filling their positions presents a challenge as it requires studying abroad to meet the qualifications in the field. Chief Meteorologist Ronald Gordon addressed the issue on Monday, emphasizing the urgent need for replacements for those who are retiring.

Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist, National Meteorological Service

“To be honest we had one additional person coming on board and that was last year. So, in terms of our forecasting team it has not increased that much. We do hope people would become interested in this field. We are in a situation where several of our senior personnel have retired or are about to retire and we need to replacements. So it is something we do encourage. In terms of the gender balance, I would say it has flipped. First, we had more males in the field. But, certainly at this point in time, in terms of the technical persons, we have more females in this field. We encourage persons of all gender to join. We do outreach to different schools at different times to try to encourage students to become interested in the field of meteorology and we would hope it would be something that would take off. One of the difficulties we have is that this field is not offered in Belize or not taught here so persons needs to go abroad to qualify and that is one of the things that hinders us to recruit more personnel.”

Farmers of the Year Announced

The Farmers of the Year for 2024 have been announced. The National Agriculture and Trade Show Committee has named Nandy Aldana of the Corozal District as the Senior Farmer of the Year. The Female Farmer of the Year is Sarah Chub of the Belize District, and the Junior Farmer of the Year is Maura Esther Escobar of the Cayo District. The three winning farmers will be recognized during the National Agriculture and Trade Show, which will be held from April twenty-sixth to the twenty-eighth. This year’s theme is “Integrating Sustainable Food Systems: Mitigating Climate Change, Strengthening Agricultural Resilience”.

Two Men Charged with Police Officer’s Murder

Investigators believe that twenty-nine-year-old Hugh Middleton and eighteen-year-old Marlon Gideon murdered police officer Dylan Anthony on Saturday, March 23rd. Police Commissioner Chester Williams told reporters on Monday that “from our investigation, it tells us that Gideon was the driver of the motorcycle and Milton was the pillion rider and the one who executed the act upon PC Anthony.”

The twenty-nine-year-old Camalote Village resident was on his way home when he was murdered in a case of mistaken identity.

Caribbean Opposition Leaders Form New Grouping

Over the weekend, seven opposition leaders from the Caribbean region gathered in Saint Lucia to establish a platform titled the ‘Leader of the Opposition Political Parties Forum’.

The meeting saw the participation of Allen Chastanet from Saint Lucia, Dr. Keith Mitchell from Grenada, Dr. Godwin Friday from Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Jamal Pringle from Antigua and Barbuda. Also in attendance were Dr. Moses ‘Shyne’ Barrow from Belize, Dr. Ronnie Yearwood from Barbados, and Roy McTaggart from the Cayman Islands.

According to Chastanet, the preliminary meeting focused on raising awareness about the constitutional significance and subsequent responsibilities tied to the role of the Opposition. He said that the meeting aimed to establish a framework for parliamentary oppositions across the Caribbean to exchange best practices and fortify their constitutional mandates.