BELIZE-Former Colombian president praises Belize as investment summit opens.

BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC -Former Colombian President Ivan Duque Marquez has praised Belize for having “almost full employment” and urged the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country to continue generating new opportunities for its population.

Addressing the opening of the two-day Belize Investment Summit, Marquez said, “One of the most excellent things about Belize is that when you look at the whole Latin American and Caribbean region, you have an employment rate around 2.8 percent, almost complete.

“That is a significant achievement. But also imagine if you continue generating new opportunities and allow the human capital through talent to be employed where the talent is, which has to do with music, the arts, and functional creation.

“What you are going to be able to do is what you are doing now with call centers where young persons are employed, and they can win or earn by the hour maybe two or three times the minimum wage on an hourly basis, the same thing can happen in the orange economy but even higher.”

The former Colombian leader said that they can earn more than they can do in a call center if they work in a sector where they can contribute more.

“That simply creates more dynamic, and I think those are the bets that countries need to make,” he told the summit being held under the theme “Belize: Endless Opportunities” and attended by hundreds of delegates and potential investors from throughout the region.

In his address to the summit, Prime Minister John Briceño said that he is delighted with the interest shown in the forum, with participants coming from South America, Central America, the Caribbean, South Korea, and the host country, Belize.

“There has been this buzz about Belize that things are happening in Belize, and there are all these business opportunities in Belize, so the business investment forum gives a chance to put investments together with locals and foreigners to see how they can get their projects going.

“It also allows the government to present the work we have done over the past two years and also the policies we have put in and the plans to make investments easier in Belize, bringing across that Belize is open for business,” Briceño added.

Prime Minister Briceño later acknowledged that much attention is being placed on the orange economy at this year’s investment summit.

The orange economy, also known as the creative sector, includes music production, movie production, culture, and heritage, among other opportunities.

“There are so many great opportunities and potential in the orange economy. President Ivan Duque Marquez’s presentation was an eye-opener for everyone to see the extraordinary options in the orange economy.

“What we have been unable to do is to harness that creativity, especially of our young people in the arts, the music, and the raw talent that exists. We must find a way to harness that and become a big industry that can create opportunities, jobs, and monies for these young people, especially these DJsDJ trying to hustle to make ends meet.”

Prime Minister Briceño said the former Colombian leader is saying that it requires the government to set the institutions, opportunities, and legislation that we can encourage them to participate in and simultaneously attract foreigners to invest.

“For instance, when it comes to movie making, we have everything you could imagine, from the jungle to the food, to the culture, the water, everything you could imagine the movie industry would want.

“But they don’t know about it, and we make it difficult for them to come. We have a group that is filming, but they have had endless challenges; labor is giving them trouble because they are going to be here for more than thirty days, and immigration is giving them trouble because they are going to be filming for more than thirty days,” he added.

Prime Minister Briceño said the emphasis is also placed on the blue, green, and orange economy and the grey economy, which includes narco money and contraband funds.

“It is illegal, and we are trying to do everything we can to stomp them out if you look at all the legislation we are doing to make it more challenging to move their money, that speaks volumes.

“Right now, we are working with the US government to help us strengthen our work in trying to keep the narcos; I think organized crime is a better word than narcos because we have no evidence that organized crime from Mexico came into Belize. That speaks to what we are accomplishing.

“We want to get rid of them. What bothers me the most is that this people come into Belize and create roots in Belize. It takes work to get them out. We have to do everything possible to get them out, and I plea to every Belizean, do not get into any relationship with these people,” Briceño added.