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Puerto Azul Just Starting Oversight Process
posted (June 18, 2014)

The Puerto Azul project…it’s here, there, and everywhere, but really, so far, it’s gotten nowhere – other than into a few press releases and plenty of news items. Â Today the Minister who heads the Cabinet Subcommittee on investment, Godwin Hulse told the media that Puerto Azul is in the very first phase of the five point approval system:

Hon - Godwin Hulse - Chairman, Cabinet Sub-committee on Investment
"First of all, if you want to make an investment, you make an application through BELTRAIDE to the Ministry of Investment. That preliminary application then goes to Cabinet to see if it would have a green light in the first instance for you to even begin, because there may be some things that the Government says clearly no to. In the case of Puerto Azul that has happened, where government says you can begin to take your look. But there are five criteria that are laid out clearly. Those 5 criteria are analysed by a technical committee, staffed with people from BELTRAIDE, the Department of Environment, Department of Tourism, Department of Investment - they all sit on that, including high technical people, who sit and analyse the finance. And then, when all that is all okay, we go back to Cabinet, and we say, 'Well, all 5 have been met.' If one of the 5 doesn't measure up, we say no dice. We don't even go back to Cabinet, but to say that we're still studying. Puerto Azul is not at that stage yet. They have not yet submitted any full report. What they did ask for is if they are able to go ahead with their own environmental study, because the initial green light said - don’t mess around with the reef. So if you’re going to do a study to show that you’re not going to mess around with the reef and there’s not going to be anything adverse, then we will proceed on the others. But like the Prime Minister said if any one fails we are at a no go. We intend that all these projects are a win-win for Government, the people of Belize, and the investor. Nobody is going to come here to lose, but the people of Belize can't lose either. If the project brings nothing to Belize, we don't gain, we don't preserve our environment, and we don't maintain the control of our country, we don't want it. It's as simple as that, no matter who it is. So, there is no question that any project, as long as we have the committee, and I continue to chair it, that will circumvent these processes. It's not going to happen." 

The developers have indicated that they may wish to, quote, “transposeâ€￾ some sections of the reef.

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