分类： business

Three years after the global COVID-19 pandemic upended economies worldwide, small and emerging entrepreneurs in Belize continue to rebuild their livelihoods – and a new $3 million commitment from the Taiwanese Embassy aims to expand ongoing support for the groups driving much of the country’s local economic growth: women and young people.

This new funding marks a continuation of partnership that has already delivered tangible progress for thousands of Belizean women navigating post-pandemic economic recovery. The first initiative, titled the Increasing Economic Power for Micro-Entrepreneurs Project, already extended critical support to more than 2,000 women, many of whom used the opportunity to break into professional fields they had never previously accessed. In addition to opening new income streams, the early programming has helped revitalize local communities across the country, with a growing number of women now working in non-traditional sectors including mobile device repair.

Building on this successful foundation, the new Belize Women and Youth MSMEs Development Project will deliver far more than just capital injection. Taiwan will contribute decades of its own economic development expertise, alongside targeted training in entrepreneurial management, hands-on vocational skill building, and end-to-end business guidance to help emerging founders turn ideas into sustainable operations. Support will be prioritized for high-potential local sectors including tourism, indigenous handicraft production, construction, and other growing industries that anchor Belize’s domestic economy.

Speaking at the launch of the new project, Taiwanese Ambassador to Belize Amino Chi emphasized that the partnership is rooted in shared progress. “We can see communities were rebuilt and many women have stepped into non-traditional fields, such as cell phone repair. Based on the foundation we have built together, we are pleased to launch today the Belize Women and Youth MSMEs Development Project,” Chi said. “Through the project, Taiwan will share its experience and expertise to train women and youth in Belize with entrepreneurship, equip them with vital vocational skills and assist them in building their own business.”

Belize’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Francis Fonseca echoed this perspective, noting that investing in women entrepreneurs delivers cascading benefits that extend far beyond individual business owners. “When a woman starts a business, she’s not only generating income for herself. She is very often the primary force stabilizing a household’s finances, financing her children’s education and reinvesting in her community,” Fonseca explained. “Support to women entrepreneurs is, in that sense, one of the most direct investments we can make in the next generation of Belizeans.”

Fonseca added that expanding access to entrepreneurship for underrepresented groups is a core, intentional priority of the Belizean government’s medium- and long-term national development strategy. “Therefore, we must create the enabling environment that allows businesses not only to start but to survive, grow, create jobs and become a lasting part of our economy,” he said. “And within it, closing the gender gap in enterprise ownership and growth is a named priority, not an afterthought.”

Belizean officials say the new funding aligns with the government’s broader goal of fostering inclusive economic growth that strengthens local families and communities. The investment is designed not just to help new founders launch their businesses, but to give them the tools and support to scale, create local jobs, and build long-term resilience that benefits entire regions of the country.

Scheduled for policy debate in 2026, a planned 3.5 percentage point increase to Belize’s hotel accommodation tax has sparked widespread pushback from the country’s tourism sector, with stakeholders warning the move could erode the industry’s recent growth and drive price-sensitive travelers to competing regional destinations.

Belize has built a strong reputation as a top Caribbean and Central American vacation spot in recent years, but industry leaders say that hard-won momentum is at serious risk from the government’s tax proposal. Reynaldo Malik, president of the Belize Hotel Association (BHA), explained that the sector is already navigating a perfect storm of economic pressures, from soaring local operating costs to slowing discretionary spending among Belize’s largest visitor group: American travelers, who are currently grappling with their own domestic inflation.

Against this backdrop, Belize competes fiercely for tourist dollars with a long list of neighboring destinations, including Cancun, Jamaica, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama. A sudden tax hike that pushes up vacation prices would make Belize one of the most expensive options in the region, Malik warned, a shift that would quickly erode the country’s global market share.

The proposed increase comes at a time when local hotel operators are already seeing profit margins shrink under the weight of rising overheads. Alina Saldivar, a BHA member and owner of Caye Caulker’s Island Magic Beach Resort and Island Magic Villas, highlighted that operators already cover steep uncompensated costs for routine maintenance and environmental management. Hotels in high-traffic coastal areas spend heavily each year to combat invasive sargassum seaweed, while salt air accelerates wear and tear on furniture, appliances and building infrastructure. Unlike many other tourism-dependent destinations, Belize offers no import duty relief for essential hotel supplies, from linens to air conditioning units to disposable cleaning supplies, Saldivar said. Coupled with already soaring costs for food, fuel, electricity and labor, the new tax would deliver an unaffordable additional financial blow, she added.

Opposition to the tax hike extends beyond industry groups: the United Democratic Party (UDP) has formally come out against the measure, warning it will damage Belize’s national competitiveness. The party is calling on the government to prioritize broad economic growth instead, and has demanded the Belize Tourism Board (BTB) release empirical data to justify the proposed increase.

Efren Perez, president of the Belize Tourism Industry Association (BTIA), echoed concerns that cost-conscious international travelers – including those shopping for vacations from European and North American markets – will simply book alternate getaways if Belize’s prices rise. When positioning the Belize brand internationally, Perez noted, neighboring competitors like Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic already maintain far more attractive price points for budget and mid-range travelers.

A key point of frustration for sector leaders is the lack of transparency around the proposal. As of late August 2026, no formal written government proposal outlining the tax increase has been shared with industry stakeholders, leaving critical questions unanswered. Stewart Krohn, managing director and general manager of Placencia’s luxury Naia Resort, questioned where the new tax revenue would be directed, and whether it would be allocated to central government operations or the BTB – and crucially, whether any funds would be reinvested in tourism promotion or infrastructure to support the sector. “These are all questions the industry still can’t answer right now,” Krohn noted.

Last week, the BHA formally submitted its list of concerns to the Ministry of Tourism, urging policymakers to pivot from raising taxes to expanding targeted support for local tourism businesses. Bilateral talks between the association and government officials are currently underway to negotiate a path forward. The report was filed by Britney Gordon for News Five.

In a major step to strengthen Belize’s labor market and expand economic opportunity for its citizens, the government of Belize has teamed up with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to roll out a new targeted employment support program. The collaborative effort officially kicked off on August 25, 2026, with the opening of a three-day strategic planning workshop held in Belmopan, the nation’s capital.

Stakeholders from across key public institutions joined IDB representatives at the workshop, including leaders from Belize’s Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Labour, and the Central Executing Unit. Together, the participating groups are mapping out implementation frameworks, aligning on operational goals, and establishing clear roadmaps to ensure the program delivers tangible results for job seekers across the country.

Tanya Santos, Chief Executive Officer of the Central Executing Unit, emphasized that the program’s success hinges on three critical pillars: cross-agency coordinated planning, clearly defined role and responsibility distribution, and robust end-to-end project management. She also took the opportunity to acknowledge the ongoing work of Labor Commissioner Rissela Dominguez Patt and the entire national Labor Department, highlighting their sustained efforts to upgrade and expand public employment services across every region of Belize.

The new initiative builds on existing efforts to reduce barriers to workforce entry and boost long-term employability for Belizeans, with the IDB bringing technical and financial support to scale up the government’s employment-focused agenda. The three-day workshop is expected to produce a finalized implementation plan that will guide the rollout of program services in the coming months.

As of August 25, 2026, Belize Electricity Limited (BEL), the country’s primary power provider, is facing a pressing financial crisis, with tens of millions of dollars in unpaid debt owed to Mexico’s state-owned national energy utility Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE) – a gap the utility cannot close on its own, according to BEL leadership.

Lynn Young, BEL’s Executive Chairman, confirmed that the Briceño administration has intervened to help the utility meet its critical financial obligations to CFE, bringing the total outstanding debt down significantly from its peak earlier this year. “In early January, the total debt sat at roughly $55 million,” Young explained in a recent public briefing. “The last figure I reviewed put it at $30 million, around $20 million of which is currently overdue. With consistent government support, we have chipped away at the total balance steadily through 2026, and we remain in ongoing dialogue with CFE leadership about our repayment schedule.”

Young outlined that the root of the utility’s financial strain is a fundamental mismatch between the rising cost of energy generation and the rates BEL charges residential and commercial customers. Currently, the utility brings in approximately $6 million in total weekly revenue, but diesel fuel alone – a key input for power generation – costs $3 million per week. After accounting for mandatory payments to CFE, domestic hydropower provider Hydro Belize, fuel suppliers, full-time staff, and contracted vendors, all of the utility’s operating revenue is exhausted, leaving no buffer to pay down accumulated debt.

A recently implemented Cost of Power Adjustment (COPA) mechanism is designed to partially offset rising generation costs, but Young noted that the adjustment is not large enough to close the entire gap. For example, last month’s unplanned extra generation cost hit 4.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, while the COPA only adds a 1.5 cent per kWh surcharge to customer bills. This 3 cent per kWh gap left BEL with a $5 million shortfall for the month alone, requiring additional government support to cover outstanding obligations to CFE.

When questioned about the policy decisions that led Belize’s energy sector to this point, Young defended earlier choices to rely heavily on CFE for imported power, noting that current challenges were unforeseeable based on available information at the time. “No one could have predicted that CFE would face operational instability,” Young said. “It is a massive system serving an energy-rich nation, so relying on cheap, reliable power from CFE looked like a sound decision when we made it, especially given that Belize had not added new domestic generation capacity in years. We make decisions based on the information we have at the time; there’s no use rehashing past calls now. As the saying goes when playing dominoes, you have to play the hand you’re dealt. Our focus now is moving forward to fix the system.”

In addition to BEL’s immediate debt crisis, a major $77 million solar energy project designed to boost Belize’s domestic power generation capacity and reduce reliance on imported energy remains stalled three years after the Briceño administration signed a development agreement with Saudi partners in 2023. Public Utilities Minister Michel Chebat explained that the delay stems from lengthy domestic procurement requirements and strict conditions imposed by Saudi stakeholders. “Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia’s procurement approval process is far longer than ours, and they have additional mandatory conditions that we have to satisfy,” Chebat explained. “One key requirement is that Saudi engineers must lead a large portion of the project’s work, which adds layers of coordination that slow progress. That said, I can confirm that our government is prioritizing this project and pushing to move it forward as quickly as possible.”

Chebat also highlighted a separate new initiative to lower long-term power costs for Belizeans: the government recently signed a $125 million compact with the Millennium Cooperation, earmarked specifically for energy cost reduction programs. “All of these ongoing investments are aligned with our core goal of bringing down power costs across the country,” Chebat added. “Of course we want these improvements in place today, and we agree they should have been delivered by now – but we are working steadily to get them across the finish line.”

In a separate update, Young also addressed growing customer complaints about high power bills, confirming that rising seasonal temperatures driving increased energy use – not the rollout of new smart meters – is the primary cause of higher monthly statements.

On August 25, 2026, Belize and Taiwan formalized a $3 million cooperation agreement designed to empower micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) across Belize, with targeted support for businesses owned by women and young entrepreneurs.

Dubbed the Belize Women and Youth MSMEs Development Project, the new initiative will be delivered as a joint effort between the Government of Belize and the Taiwan Technical Mission based in the Central American nation. This collaboration builds on a successful prior partnership between the two sides, which earlier supported approximately 2,000 women entrepreneurs and helped launch more than 100 new startup ventures across Belize.

Under the terms of the fresh agreement, participating entrepreneurs will gain access to a comprehensive package of support tailored to their unique needs. This includes specialized skills training, one-on-one business mentorship, and assistance designed to strengthen daily operations, expand access to domestic and regional markets, generate new local employment opportunities, and lay the groundwork for long-term, sustainable business growth.

Government officials in Belize have framed the project as a milestone investment in the country’s economic future, noting that it represents a critical step forward in building a more dynamic, inclusive, and shock-resistant national economy that benefits all segments of society.