PM Briceño Breaks Silence on Belize City Port Project Problems

The situation between Stake Bank Enterprise Limited and Port of Magical/ Portico continues to unfold as both entities press the government to green-light their port project. The developers of Portico claim to have gotten a memorandum of understanding from the previous administration in 2017 and then in 2021 got an Environmental Impact Assessment approved by GOB, and recently, reports of a definitive agreement surfaced. But, there seem to be gaps in this scenario as no such agreement was established. The developers of Stake Bank believe that such approvals and further developments of similar projects create serious business issues for them. So far GOB has remained mum about the situation, but today, Prime Minister John Briceño explains that this issue needs to be dealt with independently between both entities. 

Hon. John Briceño, Prime Minister of Belize: “They are two private entities throwing words at one another and that’s between them. We as a government we’re here to be able to govern and to ensure that whatever investments or approvals that were made by the Government of Belize can be carried out. If the definitive agreement, and I’ve not seen it, was signed by the Minister responsible then obviously it is going to be binding because it’s the Government of Belize that signed it. But I will not get into the back and forth between the two entities that’s among them. As you rightly pointed out that’s a legal question and that would be something for the Attorney General’s ministry to take a look at and then to advise the Cabinet.”