And so while the oil refinery promise is off the table, tonight we can report that Green Tropics is back on.
As has been reported, the Sugar Cane Production project by a Spanish Company got into trouble with the Department of Environment when it dug a massive trench through a biological corridor.
That environmental entanglement still has not been worked out - but Government has found a way forward with a memorandum of understanding. The Prime Minister explained:..
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"We singed a MOE with them, so I believe have started some of the infrastructure works that they need for the project. That's moving along."
Reporter
"And employment is how far along?"
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I am not sure. I don't know how much they've done already. I know that we talk about - they made the point that they will need maybe 250 welders and we said that we must organize things in such a way that we have the welders. We must start training people at ITVET giving them short courses. We don't want to be caught when the thing is in full swing that we can't find the welders and welders have to come in because these people appear to be in absolute honest about getting this thing done and so I have no doubt that it will move forward and that there will be significant employment as a consequence."
Jules Vasquez
"Has the MOE being signed off by the Government of Belize and does it preempt or supersede existing environmental laws?"
Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"It says that they can commence the infrastructure works pending the submission of the new EIA and approval."
In a release sent out in June, Green Tropics said that its employees would all be Belizeans except for a few technical staff specializing in mill maintenance.
The release said the Sugar Mill and processing facility would comprise a total investment of $90 million US dollars.
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