Dr. Martinez to Focus on Poverty Reduction in Toledo East and Rest of BELIZE

While Dr. Osmond Martinez fleshed out his plans for the Toledo East division, he made it a point to note that his works and that of the government will focus on improving the livelihoods and quality of life across the country.  He noted that one of the primary goals is poverty reduction.

Dr. Osmond Martinez, Minister of State (Economic Transformation): “Just like how we will have a vision for Toledo East we also have to have the vision for the wider Belize you know, and understand that  we should not be looking at just constituency, but we should be looking at people, you know, to get people out of poverty, to be able to continue to create jobs for everyone, to be able to continue to bring infrastructure development for everyone. To be able to bring education so that we can increase Belize’s human capital, to be able to improve our health sectors not only in Toledo East, but throughout the country of Belize. So our approach now and the dynamics change because we have to do it for people and not for constituencies and to be able to improve the lives of the Belizean people.  And of course  that  each constituency and each Belizean person will be able to receive that fair share of the development and economic transformation that we are proposing under Plan Belize 2.0.”

With an expertise in economics, Dr. Martinez indicated that as the Minister of State for Economic Transformation, he would be constantly looking at ways to create more job opportunities, among other areas.

Dr. Osmond Martinez, Minister of State (Economic Transformation): “We can look at the short, medium and long term. Okay, and the short term, the immediate response through the Ministry of Economic Development and the wider government and ministries is to be able to sustain and to keep creating jobs which is very important. And that is the immediate reactions, you know, whether it’s through the construction, agriculture, tourism, service sector, BPO’s, through whatever means, you know, to continue to create jobs. And  the short term, which is also medium and long term, is to continue to educate our people, right? But in the immediate response from the Ministry of Economic Development  and  its mandate is the implementation of projects. The public sector investment program has a handsome amount of funds that we can definitely have an impact in the implementation of projects whether it is  for the health sector, education, infrastructure work, the agro-productive sector, or any other sector that will complement the tourism sector and the implementation of projects is a priority within the Ministry of Economic Development and one that we will go aggressively after. There is an envelope right now within the public sector investment program that is over a billion dollars to continue to do development of public sector investment programs. And that is one that we will be monitoring very carefully, especially within the  short and medium term.”

Dr. Martinez was first elected as the Toledo East Area Representative in July last year in a bi-elections.  He was re-elected earlier this month in the general elections.