And while the Commonwealth Secretary General was at the Radisson, over at the Princess the Commonwealth Local Government Forum was holding its closing press conference.
This was the meeting that had the participation of Trinidadian Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar - who is the patron of the CLGF.
At the closing press conference, key players underscored the major themes in the statement coming out of the meeting: those are Democracy Good Governance and Local Economic Development.
Outgoing Chair of the CLGF, Zenaida Moya outlined the historical significance of the event:..
Zenaida Moya, outgoing CLGF chairperson
"It has been a quite fruitful meeting, and a historical meeting as well because of the fact that it's the first time that such a meeting was held in Belize. The only other time that it has been held in the Caribbean - the Commonwealth Local Government Forum Board Meeting - has been in Jamaica. And so, we are very pleased that Belize could have hosted it."
Hon. Godwin Hulse - Minister of Local Government
"It relates to Belize in the sense that the CARILED program - which is the economic development program - will seek to build up the capacity of the town and city councils, starting with 2, to be able to help small businesses develop to prepare their products, and hopefully to get it in the export market and the domestic market. That is is the tangible deliverable. There will be no point in having this program if it didn't touch people, and of course, you know what that's going to do, hopefully, it's to create jobs. What it means is that if somebody in Belize City, Belize District, or somebody in PG or Stann Creek wants to start a little business, but doesn't know how to begin, we'll have a personnel in the first instance, who could help them put their little project together, and take it from there. That's the kind of tangible. In terms of the overall Commonwealth Local Government Forum, that aims to strengthen town and city councils across the region. And that is what we call the decentralization of authority. In other words, people are well-accustomed to vote for their city and town councils, vote their mayors; that forum aims to strengthen that."
Carl wright, Secretary General, CLGF
"We had a very good attendance. We had a very high level attendance, some very senior ministers, local government mayors, and I think that it's probably in the history of the Commonwealth Government Forum, certainly one of the best and most productive meetings we've ever had."
All three PUP Mayors attended the event.
Moya hands over to the new Chairperson of the CLGF - Mayor Lawrence Ewle from New Zealand.
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