Senate Approves $50M IDB Loan for Urban Development and Healthcare

The Senate then moved on to a loan motion for almost 50 million Belize dollars from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The first is for 20 million dollars to establish a Sustainable and Inclusive Urban Development Program for communities in northern Belize, and the second is for twenty-eight million dollars to improve efficiency, quality, and access to healthcare. The loans are for a twenty-five-year period with a disbursement period of five years. Senator Peyrefitte rose to question whether the loan is sustainable given the country’s total debt.

Michael Peyrefitte, Opposition Senator: “We keep hearing the Minister of Finance say that we are doing so well and the economy is expanding. Not you, Minister of State, Minister of Finance. The economy is expanding at such an alarming rate but we have to borrow approximately $50 million to do essential services from what I see you’re saying you want to do on the paper. I really, for the life of me, I cannot I know Senator Herrera don’t want to hear that this is free money, practically free money, loan is loan.And we’re up to $1.7 billion in under four years you know Madam President. We have come to this National Assembly and borrowed approximately $1.7 billion, with a B, in four years, you know, with nothing to show for it. That’s not even counting like Treasury bills, you know. Like, for example, the government issued a Treasury bill note in July to be matured in October for $64 million. Like those little millions we’re not counting them, you know. This is just straight, external loans that we take on in less than four years, $1.7 billion. Madam President, how is it that we can’t say when you say we, we mean the government in place, how we as a country can’t say that you need $50 million for essential services? So given that you have grace periods and all that, and why not just allocate five million a year or 10 million a year for the next five years in the unlikely event that you’re re-elected to government? At least you know you have a five-year plan. Why do we have to keep borrowing? It’s like we are heading towards another situation where we’re hoping to benefit on the side from another restructuring. $1.7 billion dollars we’re borrowing. And we have not seen the return on any of this, we keep borrowing and borrowing and borrowing. We’re not seeing no solar panel yet for the Saudis. We’re not seeing none of those things yet. Where are they and we keep borrowing and borrowing.” 

While Peyrefitte opposed the loan motions, PUP Senator Bevington Cal supported the Bill and spoke on the benefits he believes will come from the projects.

Bevington Cal, Senator: “Madam President, component two the objective is to enhance access to outpatient, inpatient, and long-term care. This includes strategies to increase service utilization by vulnerable groups such as migrants and indigenous people and specific populations like men, Madam President. As you’re aware like the component highlights that most of our vulnerable groups in Belize are the migrant communities and of course our indigenous communities, Madam President. This group of Belizean people actually needs a lot of help when it comes to our health care system. And of course when I look, when we go more into the objective, Madam President, strengthening the community health workers platform in rural areas by training and equipping additional health care workers, Madam President. As you’re aware, it is also this government, Madam President, under the Briceño administration, who increased the stipend for healthcare workers, Madam President. These people on the campaign trail we actually met one healthcare worker and she was telling us of all the work she has been doing especially now that we’re having dengue cases, Madam President. She’s out, you know, doing education outreach, reaching out to people and all of that, Madam President. And of course, we’re proud of this government to increase their stipend from $100 to $500 monthly now, Madam President. And then seeing this loan motion also focusing on this group of people, Madam President, is significant for us. And I also want to continue reading from the objective, Madam President, piloting a comprehensive mobile clinic for primary health care services in rural areas, Madam President. Again, like I mentioned earlier, this loan motion, Madam President, this loan will translate into the realities of our people in southern Belize.”

Senator Chris Coye rebutted the opposition’s claim and noted that the loans will support projects that are data-driven and geared toward improving the lives of Belizeans.

Christopher Coye, PUP Senator: “As it relates to health we’ve identified through the support of these multilateral institutions. In the case of healthcare and health expenditures, we were able to secure the assistance of the World Bank. This one is an IDB loan but we were able to secure the assistance of the World Bank to conduct a full public expenditure review. The first of its kind for Belize. I don’t know what happened in past administrations but they were reluctant to open the books, I suppose, to the assistance and evaluation and analysis of the challenges that we face. But in connection with health and health expenditures, what we’ve seen is Belize has spent quite a bit of money in healthcare. In terms of comparators, Belize spends more per capita in healthcare than its Caribbean neighbors or its Central American and Caribbean neighbors. But the results have been subpar. Substantially subpar. And that’s where we have to look at how do we address the specific challenges that we’re facing in the delivery of health care services. Items that, for example, have been identified are the challenges that we see in non-communicable diseases; heart disease, diabetes, stroke. Those are some of the leading causes of death in Belize. Those are areas that we can address. But if we don’t understand the problems we’re facing, then we’re sticking either our head in the sand or we’re like headless chicken. So that’s where we need to look at where the data is, gain the support of these multilaterals to do the analysis and then target in an efficient and cost-effective way the use of scarce resources to address these challenges. And that is what this loan motion or these loan motions are about.”

The Bill was passed for Belize to sign the loan contract with the IDB.